FEB  1  i>  1914 


BM  605  ,R66  1913 

1 

Robinson,  H.  Wheeler 

1872-   i 

1945. 

The  religious  ideas 

of 

the 

Old  Testament 

1 

THE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS 

OF   THE 

OLD    TESTAMENT 


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Gospel  Origins 

By  the  Rev.  William  West  Holdsworth,  M.A. 

The  Religious  Ideas  of  the  Old  Testament 

By  H.  Wheeler  Robinson,  M.A. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS 

OF   THE 

OLD    TESTAMENT 


BY 


H.    WHEELER    ROBINSON,    M.A. 

TUTOR    IN    RAWDON    COLLEGE 
SOMETIME   SENIOR    KENNICOTT   SCHOLAR   IN    THE   UNIVERSITY  OF   OXFORD 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1913 


PREFACE 

Behind  the  shifting  scenes  and  crowded  stage  of  Old 
Testament  history,  and  expressed  in  the  varied  literature 
of  a  thousand  years,  there  are  a  few  simple,  yet  profound, 
ideas  which  are  fundamental  to  the  religion  of  Israel.  It 
is  the  aim  of  this  book,^  within  the  Hmits  of  the  series  to 
which  it  belongs,  to  present  these  leading  ideas  in  their 
historical  setting,  with  some  indication  of  their  theological 
and  philosophical  value,  and  of  their  significance  for 
Christianity.  The  method  of  treatment  is  therefore  dis- 
tinct from  that  which  would  naturally  be  adopted  for  a 
history  of  the  religion  as  a  whole  through  successive 
periods,  though  the  historical  development  is  more  or  less 
followed  in  the  discussion  of  each  topic,  and  in  the  order 
of  treatment.  Archaeological  detail  is  given  only  to  the 
extent  necessary  for  the  illustration  of  the  forms  assumed 
by  the  ideas.  The  general  point  of  view  is  that  of  one 
who  beheves  critical  study  of  the  Old  Testament  to  be  no 
obstacle  but  a  great  help  to  the  progress  of  the  Gospel  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  interest  felt  during  recent  years 
in  the  hterature  of  the  period  between  the  two  parts  of 
Scripture,  and  in  the  Judaism  of  the  time  of  Christ,  has 
perhaps  tended  to  obscure  the  elementary  truth  that  the 
Gospel  of  the  New  Testament  after  all  springs  from  the 
dominant  ideas   of   the   Old  Testament.     The  unity  of 

1  A  summary  of  the  argument  is  given  in  the  closing  paragraph  of  the  first 
chapter. 


vi        RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Scripture  is  shown  by  its  fundamental  conception  of 
religion  as  the  personal  fellowship  of  God  and  man.  Prior 
to  the  New  Testament,  and  judged  simply  from  the  stand- 
point of  comparative  religion,  the  Old  Testament  offers 
the  purest  and  noblest  example  of  that  conception.  The 
proof  of  the  reahty  of  that  fellowship  is  the  moral  emphasis 
which  characterises  the  reHgion  of  Israel. 

The  author  of  this  book  is  much  indebted  to  Dr.  G. 
Buchanan  Gray  and  the  Rev.  David  Stewart,  M.A.,  who 
have  read  it  in  manuscript,  and  rendered  valuable  help  by 
their  numerous  criticisms  and  suggestions.  He  has  also  to 
thank  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Rowse,  M.A.,  for  assistance  in  the 
correction  of  the  proofs. 


'^' 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAGE 
1 

1.  The  History  in  the  Literature,    ....         7 

2.  The  Salient  Features  of  the  History,      .  ,  .16 

CHAPTER  II 

THE    IDEA    OF    RELIGION,  .  .  .  ,  .28 

1.  The  Unity  within  the  Development,      .  ,  .32 

2.  The  Moral  Emphasis,      .  .  .  ,  .38 

3.  The  Contribution  of  Semitic  Animism,  .  .       46 

CHAPTER  III 

THE    IDEA    OF    GOD,  .  .  .  .  ,  .51 

1.  The  Scope  of  Yahweh's  Sovereignty,      .  .  .54 

2.  The  Personality  of  Yahweh,       .  .  .  .60 

3.  The  Moral  Character  of  Yahweh,  .  .  .65 

4.  The  Divine  Purpose  in  Creation  and  Providence,  .       70 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    IDEA    OF    MAN,  .... 

1.  The  Psychology  of  the  Hebrews, 

2.  Man's  Dependence  on  God, 

3.  The  Relation  of  the  Individual  to  the  Society, 

4.  The  Future  Life, 

CHAPTER  V 


77 
79 
83 
87 
91 


THE   APPROACH    OF   GOD    TO    MAN,  ....       102 

1.  Early  Manifestations  of  Yahweh,  ,  .  .     104 

2.  The  Prophetic  Consciousness,     .  .  .  .113 

3.  The  Written  Word,        .  .  .  .  .123 


vii 


viii       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


CHAPTEE  VI 

THE    APPROACH    OF   MAN   TO    GOD, 

1.  Holy  Places  and  Seasons, 

2.  The  Priesthood  and  the  Sacrifices, 

3.  Worship  in  the  Psalter, 

4.  Moral  Holiness, 


PAGK 

130 
133 
141 
148 
154 


^    CHAPTER  VII 

THE    PROBLEMS    OF   SIN    AND    SUFFERING, 

1.  Sin  and  Retributive  Suffering,   . 

2.  Forgiveness  and  'Righteousness', 

3.  The  Suffering  of  the  Innocent,    . 

4.  The  Cosmic  Problem  of  Evil, 


159 
160 
164 
169 
178 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE    HOPE   OF   THE   NATION, 

.     184 

1.  The  Covenant,     . 

.     186 

2.  The  Day  of  Yahweh,      . 

.     190 

3.  The  Kingdom  of  God,    . 

.     193 

4.  The  Messiah, 

.     198 

5.  The  Servant  of  Yahweh, 

.     202 

6.  Nationalism  and  Universalism,  . 

.     206 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE    PERMANENT   VALUE    OF    THE   OLD    TESTAMENT, 

1.  Israel's  History  as  a  Divine  Revelation, 

2.  The  Ideas  and  their  Intrinsic  Worth,     . 

3.  The  Practical  Value  of  the  Literature,  . 

Bibliography,   ..... 
Index,     ...,,. 


212 
216 

222 
230 

236 

241 


THE   RELIGIOUS   IDEAS   OF  THE 
OLD  TESTAMENT 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   HISTORY   AS  THE   SOURCE  OF  THE   IDEAS 

The  difference  between  conventional  impressions  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  attitude  of  the  serious  student 
towards  it,  may  be  compared  with  that  between  two  views 
of  the  same  landscape,  as  seen  by  the  casual  spectator 
and  by  the  geologist  respectively.  Both  are  gazing  on 
the  same  fertile  valley,  set  in  its  framework  of  lofty  hills, 
through  the  verdure  of  which  can  be  seen  here  and  there 
the  course  of  the  streams  that  feed  the  river  below.  The  one 
gratefully  accepts  the  whole  scene  as  it  Hes  before  him,  in 
its  abiding  majesty  and  grace.  The  other,  not  necessarily 
less  responsive  to  its  beauty,  looks  beneath  the  thin  cover- 
ing of  soil  on  the  hills  to  the  Hmestone  that  makes  them, 
thinks  of  the  buried  fossils  that  tell  the  story  of  successive 
ages,  traces  the  slow  creation  of  that  far-stretching  plain 
through  the  soil  washed  down  from  the  crumbHng  rock, 
to  be  carried  onwards  and  deposited  afresh  by  the  cease- 
less ministry  of  the  river.  His  mind's  eye  rests,  not  on 
the  result  alone,  but  on  the  interaction  of  forces,  the 
successive  processes,  the  evolving  work  of  uncounted 
centuries  that  have  made  this  result.  He  imder&tands 
better  what  he  sees,  because  he  knows  how  it  came  to  be 
what  it  is. 

It  is  not  otherwise  with  the  Old  Testament.    We  know 

A 


2         RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

and  love  its  sunlit  peaks  and  shadowed  valleys,  its  green 
pastures  and  still  waters,  the  famiUar  unity  of  the  whole 
as  it  Ues  outstretched  from  Genesis  to  Malachi.  Sinai 
frowns  upon  it  from  the  background,  and  its  river  runs 
onward  to  that  city  of  God  which  hath  no  need  of  the  sun. 
Patriarchs  and  prophets,  whose  names  are  household 
words,  have  made  this  scene  their  famihar  habitation ; 
here  kings  have  gone  to  battle,  and  saints  of  God  have 
won  better  victories,  Ufting  their  eyes  to  these  hills.  When 
we  think  what  all  this  has  meant  to  unnumbered  Uves, 
which  have  drawn  so  much  spiritual  strength  from  its 
influence,  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  passion  of  resent- 
ment that  the  critical  study  of  the  Old  Testament  has 
often  aroused  in  those  without  sufficient  faith  to  reahse 
that  beauty  is  only  enriched  by  a  deeper  truth.  But  the 
critical  study  of  the  Old  Testament  has  simply  done  for 
it  what  geology  has  done  for  natural  landscape.  Under- 
neath the  conventional  form  of  the  Old  Testament  Utera- 
ture,  critical  scholarship  has  taught  us  to  recognise  the 
successive  strata  that  have  built  up  the  mountain  peaks 
of  faith  and  vision,  each  with  its  own  fossil  survivals 
from  the  past.  The  classic  utterances  of  prophetic 
moraUty,  the  penetrating  disclosures  of  the  soul's  deep 
secrets,  which  have  borne  so  goodly  a  harvest,  were  only 
possible  because  of  more  primitive  elements  and  cruder 
material  transformed  from  forbidding  rock  into  fruitful 
plain.  To  learn  all  this,  we  must  first  unlearn  many  things 
we  have  taken  for  granted.  We  must  be  patient  enough 
to  let  the  evidence  overcome  our  prejudices.  Critical 
study  can  be  a  moral  as  well  as  an  intellectual  test,  and 
it  is  perilously  easy  to  deny  what  we  have  never  laboured 
to  understand.  But  of  one  thing  we  can  be  certain  from 
the  outset.  Critical  study  of  the  Old  Testament  can  no 
more  rob  us  of  its  spiritual  and  rehgious  value  than  geo- 
logical study  can  make  any  landscape  less  beautiful,  or 
its  soil  less  fruitful.    The  Old  Testament  is  the  permanent 


I.]      THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS      3 

possession  of  the  human  race,  and  the  more  we  know  of 
the  nature  and  history  of  its  great  ideas,  the  more  powerful 
ought  to  be  their  influence  upon  us. 

The  book  we  have  to  study  has  been  conventionaHsed 
both  by  the  Christian  and  by  the  Jew,  and  we  must  in 
both  cases  penetrate  beyond  commonly  accepted  theories 
in  order  to  reach  historic  truth.  The  task  is  easier  in 
the  former  case,  because  we  possess  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
practically  in  the  form  in  which  they  existed  when  they  were 
appropriated  by  the  Christian  Church,^  and  are  not  com- 
pelled first  to  ehminate  Christian  alterations.  Christian 
traditionaUsm  in  regard  to  the  Old  Testament  belongs  wholly 
to  the  reahn  of  interpretation.^  In  the  earUer  centuries 
this  was  allegorical,  and  admitted  of  the  wildest  fancies. 
At  a  later  date,  as  the  dogmatic  system  of  the  Church 
developed,  the  whole  Bible  became  a  uniform  text-book 
of  dogma,  which  could  be  cited  with  Httle  or  no  recognition 
of  the  development  between  its  first  page  and  its  last.  As 
such,  it  passed  from  the  CathoHc  to  the  Protestant  Church, 
and  acquired  a  new  significance,  because  the  traditions 
of  the  Church  as  a  parallel  authority  were  exphcitly 
rejected.  Protestant  dogma  confidently  interpreted  the 
Old  Testament  according  to  its  'plan  of  salvation',  and, 
until  the  comparatively  recent  historical  study  of  Scrip- 
ture, the  Bible  was  read  with  the  conviction  that  it  would 
give  throughout  a  consistent  and  uniform  statement  of 
Protestant  doctrine,  if  its  various  utterances  were  systemati- 
cally collected  and  combined.  From  such  an  assumption 
we  are  not  yet  free,  and  it  affects  men  often  unconsciously 
in  their  exegesis  of  the  Old  Testament. 

1  But  the  earlier  Christian  Scriptures  were  in  the  Greek  version  (the 
Septuagint),  which  contained,  in  addition  to  the  Hebrew  Canon,  a  number 
of  other  books  circulating  amongst  Greek-speaking  Jews.  These  books, 
broadly  speaking,  are  now  known  as  the  Apocrypha,  and  form  part  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Canon  (the  Vulgate).  The  Protestant  Canon  is  identical 
in  contents,  though  not  in  order,  with  the  Hebrew. 

2  Of  course,  including  translation,  as  in  the  retention  of  'virgin'  in  E.V. 
of  Isaiah  vii.  14,  against  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew. 


4        RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Jewish  traditionalism  is  more  difficult  to  deal  with, 
because  it  is  inwrought  into  the  texture  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment itself.  The  hterature  was  divided  into  three  groups, 
in  the  general  order  of  their  supposed  antiquity  and  value, 
viz.  '  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Writings  '.^  On 
these  three  terraces,  one  below  another,  lay  revealed  the 
supposed  history  of  Israel,  with  the  golden  age  of  the 
patriarchs  on  the  crest  of  the  hill.  God  was  worshipped 
from  the  beginning,  but  His  full  revelation  was  not  given 
until  Moses.  From  that  divine  Law  Israel  fell  away,  to 
be  rebuked  and  vainly  recalled  to  obedience  through  the 
prophets.  For  this  disobedience  the  Exile  was  the  punish- 
ment ;  to  the  penitent  faithful  the  restoration  was  the 
reward,  though  they  still  waited  through  the  centuries 
for  the  hope  of  Israel,  its  full  re-estabUshment  as  the 
people  of  God.  This  dogmatic  framework  shaped  not 
only  the  Jewish  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament, 
but  even  the  Uterary  form  in  which  it  was  allowed  to 
reach  the  Christian  Church.  The  actual  history,  it  was 
naively  felt,  must  have  corresponded  with  this  theory.^ 
So  earher  records  were  pressed  into  the  service  of  the 
later  ideas  of  the  rehgion.  The  Hterary  documents  of 
the  history  of  Israel  are  not,  in  our  present  Old  Testament, 
arranged  in  the  historical  order  of  their  composition, 
nor  preserved  in  their  original  integrity.  The  narrator's 
aim  was  not  the  scientific  accuracy  which  we  desiderate 
in  the  historian  of  to-day ;  the  ancient  writer  felt  free 
to  mould  the  traditions  of  the  past  into  an  illustration 
of  the  convictions  of  his  own  time.  Yet  we  must  be 
grateful  to  these  writers  for  one  thing  ;  they  have  often 
incorporated  older  documents  into  their  own  writings, 
with  comparatively  little  change.    It  is  the  presence  of 

1  The  *  Prophets '  also  included  Joshua,  Judges,  1  and  2  Samuel,  1  and  2 
Kings,  but  not  Daniel,  which  is  assigned  to  the  '  Writings  '. 

2  The  way  in  which  the  history  was  re- written  in  accordance  with  the 
ideas  of  a  later  age  may  be  seen  by  comparing  1  Chronicles  xv.  with 
2  Samuel  vi.  (the  ark  brought  to  Jerusalem). 


I.]      THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS      5 

these  older  strata  that  has  enabled  Old  Testament  scholar- 
ship, within  the  last  century,  to  reach  a  view  of  the  history 
which  is  doubtless  incomplete  and  sometimes  faulty, 
but  which  brings  us  much  nearer  to  the  truth  than  did 
the  conventional  view. 

The  evidence  for  these  statements  belongs  to  that 
department  of  Old  Testament  study  which  is  technically 
known  as  '  Introduction  '.^  It  is  partly  philological, 
consisting  in  the  examination  of  Hebrew  words,  phrases, 
and  styles  of  composition ;  these  reveal,  as  in  all  languages, 
a  development  of  usage  in  successive  generations.^  In 
part,  also,  the  evidence  is  derived  from  the  subject-matter  ; 
ideas  and  customs  appear  in  professedly  the  same  docu- 
ment, which  cannot  be  reconciled  on  the  assumption 
that  they  are  really  contemporaneous,  though  they  admit 
of   natural   explanation   on   the   assumption   that   they, 


1  See  the  companion  volume  in  this  series,  A  Critical  Introduction  to  the 
Old  Testament,  by  G.  Buchanan  Gray,  or  Driver's  well-known  larger  work, 
Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament.  Almost  all  Old. 
Testament  scholars  would  agree  on  the  following  summary  of  conclu- 
sions. The  earliest  Hebrew  literature  we  possess  consists  of  songs  or 
other  poetry,  of  which  the  oldest  is  probably  the  Song  of  Deborah  ;  this 
goes  back  to  the  twelfth  century  B.C.  Stories  of  the  heroes  who  are  now 
classed  as  'judges  ',  and  of  the  first  two  kings,  were  composed  a  century  or 
two  later,  as  was  also  the  earliest  code  of  Hebrew  law,  known  as  the  '  Book 
of  the  Covenant'  (Ex.  xx.  22-xxiii.  19).  This  has  been  incorporated  into 
one  of  the  two  oldest  strata  of  the  Hexateuch  (Genesis-Joshua),  which  are 
usually  assigned  to  the  ninth  (J)  and  to  the  eighth  (E)  centuries  respectively. 
The  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  (Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah,  and  Micah) 
profoundly  influenced  the  second  code  of  Hebrew  law,  which  underlies  our 
present  Deuteronomy.  This  code  was  promulgated  in  the  last  quarter  of 
the  seventh  century ;  the  history  of  the  later  kings  came  to  be  written 
under  the  influence  of  a  Deuteronondc  interpretation.  Another  code  dating 
from  the  Exile  is  found  in  Leviticus  xvii.-xxvi.  ;  it  is  closely  dependent  on 
the  work  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel.  The  fourth  code  was  that  accepted  by  the 
post-exilic  community  at  the  initiative  of  Ezra  (444) ;  it  is  known  as  the 
*  Priestly  Code ',  and  we  owe  to  writers  of  this  school  the  present  form  of  the 
Hexateuch.  The  Psalms,  at  least  in  their  present  form,  and  other  works  of 
developed  religious  thought,  such  as  Job,  belong  to  the  post-exilic  period  ; 
Chronicles  belongs  to  the  third,  Daniel  to  the  second,  Ecclesiastes  possibly 
to  the  first  century  B.C. 

3  Thus  the  syntax  and  vocabulary  of  Ecclesiastes— the  latest  book  of  the 
Old  Testament — show  many  points  of  contact  with  post-Biblical  Hebrew, 
and  many  differences  from  the  Hebrew  of  the  early  monarchy. 


6         RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

and  the  original  documents  in  which  they  appear,  belong 
to  different  periods.^ 

This  rearrangement  of  the  documents  is  not,  as  is 
often  supposed  by  those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the 
evidence,  an  arbitrary  reconstruction ;  it  is  simply  a 
result  of  the  science  of  historical  criticism  working  on 
the  actual  documents.  The  facts  which  characterise 
them  have  to  be  explained,  and  this  is  the  explanation 
of  the  facts  which  has  gradually  approved  itseK  to  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  competent  scholars.  If  any  one 
still  wishes  to  employ  the  documents  for  historical  pur- 
poses in  the  conventional  way,  he  ought  first  to  be  ready 
with  a  better  explanation  of  the  facts,  such  as  the  different 
conceptions  of  priest  and  sacrifice  in  what  is  alleged  to 
be  the  same  document,  or  the  complete  ignorance  of  the 
Deuteronomic  law  of  a  single  sanctuary,  which  prevails 
before  the  seventh  century  B.C.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  critical  rearrangement  of  the  documents  which  their 
own  characteristics  compel  us  to  make,  yields  a  view  of 
the  history  of  Israel  which  is  natural  without  being  natural- 
istic. The  final  evidence  for  the  conclusions  of  this  critical 
study  is  the  resultant  organic  view  of  Israel's  history, 
reveahng  the  same  principles  of  development  throughout 
its  course  as  we  find  in  all  other  human  history. 

According  to  Rabbinic  legend,  Moses  saw  from  Pisgah 
not  only  Israel's  future  land,  but  also  Israel's  future 
history,  unrolled  in  swift  panorama  before  his  eyes.  Some 
such  outhne  of  events  is  necessary  for  us,  in  order  that  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  history  may  appear.  The 
most  remarkable  of  them  all  is  the  issue  from  that  history 
of  the  rehgious  ideas  which  will  claim  our  attention. 

1  E.g.,  all  Levites  are  priests  according  to  Deuteronomy  xviii.  1,  but  the 
(later)  law  of  Leviticus  i.  6  confines  the  priesthood  to  Aaron's  sons. 


I.]      THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS      7 
1.  The  History  in  the  Literature 

The  history  of  Israel  began  with  the  migration  of  certain 
nomadic  tribes,  of  Semitic  origin,  from  the  Egyptian 
borders  and  control,  and  with  their  invasion  of  Palestine. 
The  date  at  which  this  invasion  occurred  is  approximately 
settled  by  evidence  independent  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  ghmpse  of  Palestine  afforded  in  the  Tell-el-Amarna 
Letters  of  about  1400  B.C.  shows  that  the  Hebrews  of 
the  Bible  were  not  yet  settled  there ;  but  an  Egyptian 
inscription  in  the  latter  half  of  the  thirteenth  century 
refers  to  Israel  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  it  was 
then  one  element  in  the  mixed  population  of  Palestine. 
At  some  time,  therefore,  not  long  prior  to  1250  B.C., 
we  may  suppose  the  IsraeHtes  to  have  gained  an  entrance 
into  Palestine,  as  a  group  of  tribes  more  or  less  united 
for  purposes  of  warfare  under  the  name  of  their  God, 
Yahweh.  Nothing  is  known  of  the  previous  history  of 
these  tribes  and  of  their  rehgion,  though  something  may 
be  conjectured  from  the  traditions  of  their  ancestors 
which  were  written  down  centuries  after  the  settlement 
in  Palestine.^  We  have  no  documents  contemporary 
with  Israel's  nomadic  period ;  the  story  of  the  Exodus 
from  Eg3rpt  is  first  told  by  writers  separated  by  many 
generations  from  the  days  of  the  desert.^  Much  of  that 
story  clearly  throws  back  the  conditions  of  settled  life 
in  Palestine  into  the  very  different  Hfe  of  wandering  tribes. 
But  with  every  allowance  for  these  later  accretions,  in- 
evitable in  the  case  of  oral  tradition,  there  must  have  been 
a  nucleus  of  historic  fact  in  the  tradition  that  so  power- 
fully influenced  the  later  course  of  the  history — the  tradi- 

1  For  a  fair  statement  of  the  present  degree  of  our  knowledge,  see 
Skinner's  Genesis,  pp.  xiii.  f.  His  conclusion  is  that  '  as  yet  archseology  has 
furnished  no  sure  basis  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  patriarchal  history' 
(p.  xxii.). 

2  'The  Egyptian  monuments  give  no  information  as  to  the  sojourn  of  the 
Israelites  in  Egypt,  and  as  to  the  Exodus  '  (Jeremias,  Das  Alte  Testament  im 
Lichte  des  Alien  Orients,  p.  400). 


8         RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

tion  that  these  tribes  had  a  most  remarkable  escape  from 
the  pursuit  of  their  Egyptian  over-lords,  that  their  leader, 
Moses,  taught  them  to  see  in  this  escape  the  hand  of 
Yahweh,  and  that  from  that  time  onward  these  tribes 
beheved  that  Yahweh  was  their  God,  and  that  they  were 
Yahweh's  people.  The  later  history  requires  such  a 
dehverance,  such  a  prophet-leader,  and  such  a  faith  to 
explain  its  course,  and  there  is  no  sufficient  reason  for 
rejecting  the  later  behef  that  this  relation  between  Yahweh 
and  the  tribes  gathered  at  Sinai  was  formally  expressed 
by  some  kind  of  '  covenant  '.^  On  the  other  hand,  we 
have  no  rehable  knowledge  of  the  explicit  conditions  or 
requirements  of  that  '  covenant '  ;  all  that  the  history 
of  the  following  centuries  warrants  us  in  sajang  is  that 
Yahweh  became  primarily  the  war-god  of  His  people. 
But  it  would  be  perfectly  natural  for  tribal  customs, 
especially  tribal  justice,  to  pass  under  the  protection  of 
the  war-god,  even  from  the  earhest  days.^  The  one 
unquestionable  fact,  in  a  realm  of  conjecture  and  infer- 
ence, is  that  the  Hebrew  tribes  which  advanced  from  the 
desert  to  the  conquest  of  Palestine  brought  with  them 
a  faith  in  their  God,  Yahweh,  which  became  the  dominant 
factor  in  their  history. 

The  traditional  account  of  the  conquest  of  Palestine 
describes  its  completion  in  a  single  generation.^  But  the 
earliest  sources,  imbedded  in  the  Books  of  Joshua  and 
Judges,  show  that  the  conquest  was  gradual  and  piece- 
meal. Some  tribes  seem  to  have  effected  an  entrance 
from  the  south,  and  to  have  secured  a  settlement  there, 
whilst  others  crossed  the  Jordan  from  the  east,  so  that 
the  division  of  Israel  into  a  southern  and  a  northern  portion 
belongs  to  its  earliest  days.     At  first  the  Israehtes  secured 

1  On  the  history  of  this  important  term,  see  chap,  viii.  §  1. 

2  Cf.  Exodus  xviii. 

3  E.g.,  Joshua  xi.  23  ;  contrast  xiii.  13,  xv.  14-19,  xv.  63,  xvi.  10,  xvii.  11- 
13,  14-18,  xix.  47 ;  Judges  i.  1-ii.  5 ;  these  all  belong  to  a  much  earlier 
document. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS       9 

little  more  than  settlement  in  the  hill  country,  whilst  the 
richer  plain  lands  remained  in  the  occupation  of  the 
Canaanites.  The  consequent  isolation  of  these  scattered 
groups  of  IsraeHtes  encouraged  the  Canaanites  to  a  com- 
bined attack,  which  has  left  its  record  in  the  earUest  piece 
of  hterature  which  the  Old  Testament  contains,  the  Song 
of  Deborah.  It  was  not  until  the  time  of  Solomon  that 
the  gradual  absorption  of  the  weaker  Canaanites  by  the 
hardier  Israehtes  was  completed.  But,  just  as  Greece, 
a  thousand  years  later,  conquered  her  conqueror  Rome, 
so  Canaanite  culture  proved  more  perilous  to  Israel  than 
Canaanite  chariots.  Palestine  was  a  fertile  and  civiHsed 
country  long  before  the  Israelite  invasion.  The  transi- 
tion from  the  pastoral  hf e  of  the  desert  to  the  more  developed 
agricultural  life  of  Palestine  had  important  consequences 
for  the  rehgion  of  Israel.  Just  as  Israel's  tribal  hfe  was 
under  the  protection  of  Yahweh,  so  the  civihsation  of 
Palestine  was  Hnked  to  the  local  Baalim.  To  adopt  a 
new  mode  of  Hfe  was,  in  those  days,  to  be  committed  to 
a  new  rehgious  development.  The  issue  before  Israel  was, 
therefore,  the  choice  between  the  worship  of  these  Baahm, 
in  addition  to  their  war-god,  Yahweh,  and  the  transfer- 
ence to  Him  of  the  attributes  of  the  gods  of  the  land.  The 
latter  alternative  prevailed,  and  from  this  transference 
arise  the  chief  problems  and  crises  in  the  earher  period 
of  Israel's  rehgion.  The  pohtical  unity  of  the  nation 
was  not  achieved  until  about  1000  B.C.,  under  David. 
For  the  first  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  Israel's  hfe  in 
Canaan  we  have  httle  more  than  the  records  of  local 
heroes — the  so-called  '  Judges  ' — who  became  prominent 
in  this  or  that  section  of  the  people.  It  was  the  hostile 
pressure  of  the  Philistines  ^  which  finally  welded  the 
people  together,  as  that  of  the  Canaanites  might  have 

1  This  people  is  probably  to  be  identified  with  the  non-Semitic  Purusati, 
who  invaded  Syria  in  the  time  of  Rameses  in.  (c.  1200  B.C.).  Their  original 
home,  '  Caphtor '  (Am.  ix.  7),  is  usually  taken  to  be  Crete. 


10      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT      [ch. 

done  had  it  been  more  effective.  The  kingship  emerges 
in  Israel  as  a  miHtary  function,  and  Saul  is  primarily 
Israel's  leader  against  the  Philistines.  (It  is  significant 
that  here  again,  as  in  the  desert,  we  find  a  prophetic  per- 
sonahty,  that  of  Samuel,  prominent  in  this  new  departure.) 
Saul  failed  to  accompHsh  the  purpose  of  his  kingship,  and 
was  defeated  and  slain  by  the  PhiUstines.  But  David, 
who  followed  him,  was  successful,  and  his  success  brought 
other  consequences  for  national  development,  in  the 
extension  of  the  teriitorial  borders,  and  in  the  union  of 
the  northern  and  southern  elements  under  a  single  ruler. 
This  union  did  not  continue  further  than  the  reign  of 
Solomon — a  reign  chiefly  noticeable  for  the  inner  develop- 
ment and  organisation  of  the  nation ;  under  his  son 
Rehoboam  the  super-imposed  bond  uniting  north  and 
south  was  broken,  and  the  original  grouping  that  went 
back  to  the  first  invasion  of  Canaan  asserted  itself.  But 
the  memory  of  this  brief  period  of  the  undivided  kingdom, 
and  of  its  real  poHtical  independence,  became  one  of  the 
most  potent  of  religious  influences.  Its  brevity  found 
compensation  in  the  intensity  with  which,  through  many 
centuries,  the  nation  was  inspired  with  the  hope  of  a 
return  of  the  Davidic  kingship,  and  of  the  glory  of  that 
ideahsed  past.^  One  important  result  of  the  kingship 
was  the  estabHshment  at  Jerusalem  of  the  royal  temple, 
destined  to  become,  after  many  generations,  the  concrete 
centre  and  embodiment  of  Israel's  rehgion. 

The  history  of  the  divided  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah 
is  really  the  history  of  the  northern  kingdom,  Israel.  The 
centre  of  power  and  interest  Hes  in  the  north,  and  Judah  is 
of  neghgible  poHtical  significance  so  long  as  the  northern 
kingdom  lasts.  The  relation  of  Judah  to  Israel  was  prac- 
tically that  of  a  vassal  kingdom,  as  is  shown  by  the  service 
of  Judsean  troops  in  the  campaigns  of  the  northern  kings. 
In  the  course  of  the  two  centuries  (933-722),  during  which 

1  See  chap,  viii. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     11 

the  northern  kingdom  existed,  there  were  two  dynasties 
of  importance,  that  of  Omri  (887-843),  and  that  of  Jehu 
(843-745).  Under  Ahab,  the  son  of  Omri,  came  the  in- 
evitable conflict  between  the  rehgion  of  Canaan,  as  expressed 
in  the  cult  and  culture  of  Phoenicia,  and  the  rehgion  of 
Israel  as  the  worship  of  Yahweh  alone.  The  immediate 
causes  which  made  the  northern  kingdom  the  arena  of 
ultimate  and  fundamental  issues  were  Ahab's  political 
marriage  with  a  princess  of  Tyre,  and  Ehjah's  passionate 
devotion  to  the  God  of  Sinai.  The  full  strength  of  the 
nationahstic  movement  was  revealed  in  the  reign  of  Ahab's 
son  and  second  successor,  Jehoram.  A  conspiracy  in 
which  Jehu  was  the  hand  and  Ehsha  the  heart,  over- 
threw the  djTiasty  of  Omri  in  the  interests  of  the  religion 
of  Yahweh.  The  dynasty  of  Jehu,  thus  introduced,  lasted 
until  the  shadow  of  Assyria  fell  across  throne  and 
people  in  the  eighth  century  B.C.  Prior  to  this,  Israel's 
foreign  relations  had  been  chiefly  with  the  neighbouring 
state  of  Damascus,  which  was  the  one  foe  to  be  feared.^ 
But,  in  fact,  Damascus  was  really  the  protector  of  Israel 
from  Assyrian  attack.  The  combined  forces  of  Damascus 
and  Israel  were  defeated  by  Assyria  in  855,  but  it  was  not 
until  a  century  later  that  the  absorption  of  Israel  by  the 
great  world-power  became  imminent.  This  new  element 
in  the  history  of  Israel  explains  the  most  characteristic 
feature  in  the  reUgious  development  of  this  period.  Just 
as  the  pressure  of  Phihstia  had  created  the  military  king- 
ship of  Saul  and  David  to  replace  the  clan-leadership  of 
the  '  Judges  ',  so  that  of  Assyria  created  a  new  type  of 
what  may  be  called  '  international '  prophecy,  in  place 
of  the  older  nationalistic  tjrpe  represented  by  Ehjah. 
Amos  and  Hosea,  discerning  a  spiritual  law  in  the  natural 
world,  interpret  the  foreign  peril  as  a  divine  judg- 
ment. The  breadth  of  their  appHcation  of  this  principle 
corresponds  with  their  enlarged  conception  of  Yahweh 
1  Cf.  the  story  of  Naaman  and  the  captive  Hebrew  maid  (2  Kings  v.). 


12       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Himself  as  the  ruler  of  the  nations.  This  moral  inter- 
pretation of  history  by  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century, 
together  with  the  idea  of  God  which  it  imphes,  is  the 
most  important  rehgious  event  of  this  period.  It  was 
the  more  influential  because  history  itself  confirmed  the 
principles  they  laid  down.  When  Samaria  finally  fell 
to  the  Assyrians  (722),  the  new  prophecy  was  vindicated, 
for  it  had  continuously  threatened  national  disaster  as 
a  divine  judgment  on  social  unrighteousness.  A  most 
impressive  object-lesson  was  given  to  the  sister-kingdom 
of  the  south,  which,  though  still  poUtically  insignificant, 
now  became  the  centre  of  religious  interest. 

Already,  before  the  fall  of  Samaria,  Judah  had  accepted 
the  position  of  a  tributary  state  to  Assyria ;  Ahaz  had  been 
led  to  take  this  step  in  732,  as  a  means  of  protection 
against  the  united  forces  of  Damascus  and  Israel,  though 
against  the  advice  of  Isaiah.  The  influence  of  this  prophet 
was  exerted  more  successfully  upon  Hezekiah,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Ahaz,  to  the  extent,  apparently,  of  some 
reformation  in  the  existent  worship  of  Yahweh.  But 
Isaiah  was  not  able  to  prevent  Hezekiah  from  alHance 
with  Egypt  against  Assjrria,  a  poUcy  which  finally  brought 
Sennacherib's  army  against  Jerusalem  (701).  It  was 
either  in  this,  or  in  a  later  campaign,  that  a  pestilence 
broke  out  in  Sennacherib's  army,  and  saved  the  city, 
so  offering  confirmation  of  Isaiah's  faith  in  Yahweh,  and 
a  new  ground  for  the  growing  confidence  of  the  people 
in  the  inviolabiHty  of  Jerusalem.  Under  Manasseh 
(692-638)  poHtical  dependence  on  Assyria  brought  with 
it  a  great  influx  of  Assyrian  rehgion,  which  prevailed  until 
the  time  of  the  Deuteronomic  Reformation  (621)  under 
Josiah.  The  fall  of  the  Assyrian  capital,  Nineveh,  to  the 
united  Medes  and  Babylonians  (606)  merely  changed  the 
hand  by  which  the  last  blows  were  to  be  struck.  In  597 
Nebuchadrezzar  captured  Jerusalem,  and  deported  some 
of  its  principal  inhabitants ;    ten  years  later,  provoked 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS      13 

by  a  new  revolt,  he  destroyed  the  city.  Throughout 
this  closing  generation  in  the  history  of  the  southern 
kingdom  the  prominent  figure  for  the  history  of  rehgion 
is  Jeremiah.  His  apparently  unpatriotic  counsel  of  sub- 
mission to  Babylon  was  but  the  husk  for  the  kernel  of  a 
deeper  patriotism.  That  patriotism  was  united  with  a 
new  recognition  of  the  place  and  value  of  the  individual 
in  rehgion,  which  is  expressed  both  in  his  own  vividly 
described  personal  experience,  and  in  the  prophecy  of 
the  '  new  covenant '  which  Yahweh  will  make  with  each 
IsraeHte.^  Such  spiritual  ideas,  however,  were  too  far 
in  advance  of  the  times  for  their  full  influence  yet  to  be 
felt.  It  was  rather  the  idea  of  the  old  covenant,  as 
elaborated  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  which  was  the 
immediate  legacy  of  this  period.  In  this  book,  for  the 
first  time,  the  rehgion  of  Israel  was  finked  to  a  written 
code  of  law,  pubhcly  accepted.^  Here  was  a  book,  in- 
spired by  the  teaching  of  the  eighth-century  prophets, 
yet  destined  to  become  the  nucleus  of  a  priestly  and 
legafistic  hterature — that  of  the  Pentateuch.  Here  was 
the  prophetic  philosophy  of  history  enforcing  the  moral 
demands  of  Yahweh  so  powerfully  as  to  influence  all 
subsequent  historians  in  their  judgment  of  the  past.  The 
Deuteronomic  Law  was  therefore  of  the  first  importance, 
though  its  immediate  (pre-exific)  operation  was  so  tran- 
sient, and  its  measure  of  immediate  success  so  fimited. 
The  primary  demand  which  it  made  for  a  single 
sanctuary  was  enforced  by  the  Exile ;  the  local  sanc- 
tuaries, with  all  their  Canaanite  associations,  were  never 
revived. 

The  influence  of  the  Exile  on  the  future  fife  of  the  nation 
was  profound  and  far-reaching.     What  it  destroyed  of 

1  Jeremiah  xxxi.  31  f. 

2  2  Kings  xxiii.  1-3.  The  discovered  book,  which  king  and  people 
covenanted  to  obey,  is  shown  by  the  details  of  the  actual  reformation 
(verses  4  f.)  to  have  been  identical  with  the  central  part  of  Deuteronomy. 


14       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

political  ambition,  it  more  than  repaid  in  religious  intensity. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  nurtured  the  priestly  conception  of 
a  community  wholly  devoted  to  the  service  of  God, 
with  the  ritual  of  the  temple  as  the  Hving  centre  of  that 
service.  On  the  other,  contact  with  a  larger  world  widened 
the  horizon  of  Yahweh's  activity,  and  the  conception 
of  Yahweh's  purposes.  These  two  influences  are  best 
seen  in  the  two  great  prophets  of  the  Exile,  viz.  Ezekiel 
and  Deutero-Isaiah  (Is.  xl.-lv.).  Both  are  agreed  in 
throwing  themselves  on  God  for  the  needs  of  the  future  ; 
the  new  worship  and  the  new  hfe  will  spring  from  Him. 
But  Ezekiel  sees  the  cUmax  of  divine  intervention  in  the 
restoration  of  reHgion  as  the  priest  naturally  conceives 
it,  reHgion  as  it  takes  visible  form  in  a  reorganised  cult, 
and  in  the  customs  of  a  people  ceremonially  'holy'. 
Ezekiel,  in  fact,  promotes  the  codification  of  priestly  law 
by  his  vision  of  a  priestly  Utopia.  In  him  begins  the 
spirit  of  the  post-exiHc  Judaism  ;  he  marks  the  beginning 
of  the  second  half  of  Israel's  history,  as  did  Moses  that  of 
the  first.  The  vision  of  Deutero-Isaiah  is  of  an  altogether 
different  kind,  though,  Hke  that  of  Ezekiel,  it  awaits  the 
activity  of  God  for  the  introduction  of  the  new  era.  This 
prophet,  hke  Amos  and  Hosea,  is  kindled  by  the  sight  of 
new  poHtical  movements,  yet  not  to  condemnation,  but 
to  consolation.  He  does  not,  hke  Ezekiel,  draw  his 
strength  from  memories  of  the  temple  that  was,  but  from 
the  hope  of  the  people  that  shall  be,  when  Cyrus  shall 
have  accomphshed  the  work  of  liberation,  to  which 
Yahweh  has  anointed  him.  As  a  matter  of  history, 
Cyrus  conquered  Babylon  in  539,  and  is  said  to  have 
permitted  the  return  of  Jews  under  Sheshbazzar  in  the 
following  year. 

It  is  clear  that  the  circumstances  of  this  so-called 
'  Return '  were  in  sharp  and  painful  contrast  with  the 
glowing  prophetic  anticipations  of  it.  The  Temple  was  not 
rebuilt  until  eighteen  years  afterwards,  when  the  prophets 


I.]      THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     15 

Haggai  and  Zechariah,  stimulated  by  political  events 
in  the  Persian  kingdom,  aroused  the  depressed  and  dis- 
illusioned settlers  to  their  task.  This  was  accomplished 
by  515.  But  its  completion  brought  no  such  revival 
of  the  glories  of  the  past  as  these  prophets  had  promised. 
Perhaps  the  pecuUar  mission  of  Israel  was  never  in  greater 
peril  of  abandonment  than  during  the  interval  between 
the  rebuilding  of  the  second  Temple  and  the  arrival  of 
Nehemiah  in  444  B.c.^  Through  his  energies,  the  ruined 
walls  of  the  city  were  rebuilt,  notwithstanding  the  jealous 
opposition  of  those  who  surrounded  the  Jewish  com- 
munity. Through  the  effective  help  of  Nehemiah,  the 
religious  reform  of  Ezra  became  possible.  Their  com- 
bined activity  led  to  the  solemn  acceptance  of  the 
Priestly  Law,  which  now  forms  the  chief  element  in 
the  Pentateuch.  This  was  the  second  great  step  in 
the  transference  of  the  idea  of  revelation  from  oral 
prophecy  to  the  written  word.  The  first  had  been 
made  with  the  acceptance  of  the  Deuteronomic  Code  two 
centuries  earlier.  Thus  was  introduced  that  '  legalism ' 
which  characterises  Judaism,  the  post-exilic  reHgion  of 
Israel.^  The  nation  had  lost  its  poHtical  independence, 
and  had  become  an  ecclesiastical  community,  gathered 
within  a  small  district  around  its  one  Temple. 

When  we  seek  to  trace  the  inner  history  of  the  Jewish 
community  through  the  following  centuries,  it  is  almost 
as  though  we  were  writing  the  history  of  a  local  Church, 
with  no  direct  outUne  of  events  available,  but  simply 
its  successive  hymn-books,  the  magazines  that  circulated 
amongst  its  members,  and  the  report  of  an  occasional 
sermon.     The  literature  of  the  period  is  not  scanty,  but 

^  Ezra's  earlier  arrival  in  458  (Ezra  vii.  7)  seems  to  have  produced  no 
result  until  he  was  reinforced  by  Nehemiah  (see  E.  Bi.,  col.  784). 

2  The  term  'Judaism'  will  be  used  strictly  in  this  sense  throughout  the 
book.  'Hebrew'  is  generally  used  to  denote  tlie  pre-exilic  religion,  in 
contrast  with  Judaism,  though  it  may  also  be  used  of  features  common  to 
the  whole  religion  of  Israel,  before  and  after  the  Exile,  when  there  is  no 
ambiguity. 


16      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

it  is  difficult  to  discover  the  course  of  events  in  which  it 
originated.  The  Jewish  community  remained  poUtically 
dependent  on  the  Persian  kingdom  until  the  conquest 
of  that  kingdom  by  Alexander  the  Great  in  332.  In  the 
division  of  his  kingdom,  Palestine  fell  to  the  control  of 
Egypt ;  after  more  than  a  century  of  Egyptian  control 
it  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  (Syrian)  Seleucidse.  In 
the  second  century  began  that  fierce  conflict  between 
Judaism  and  Hellenism,  of  which  the  Book  of  Daniel  is 
one  Hterary  product,  and  the  First  Book  of  the  Maccabees 
is  another.  The  suppression  of  the  Temple  worship  by 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  in  168,  and  his  attempts  to  Hellenise 
the  Jewish  community,  provoked  a  successful  revolt, 
which  for  a  time  hf ted  Judaism  once  more  into  the  political 
arena.  The  freedom  secured  by  the  Maccabees  lasted  until 
the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Pompey  in  63  B.C.  So  the 
Jewish  nation  became  part  of  the  Roman  Empire,  until 
the  outbreak  of  the  fiercer  nationahsm  led  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  in  a.d.  70.  The  rehgious  development 
of  this  post-exilic  period  is  far  too  complex  to  be  summed 
up  in  a  sentence  or  two.  To  it  belong  not  only  the  devo- 
tional rehgion  of  the  Psalter  and  the  problem  of  the  Book 
of  Job,  but  also  a  most  remarka-ble  growth  in  eschatological 
speculation,  the  Hterature  of  which  hes,  for  the  most  part, 
outside  the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  beyond  the 
scope  of  this  book.  We  measure  the  rehgious  significance 
of  these  centuries  best  when  we  remember  that,  whilst 
the  casuistry  of  the  Mishnah  is  one  of  their  results,  the 
unfettered  hfe  of  the  New  Testament  is  another. 

2.  The  Salient  Features  of  the  History 

The  history  which  has  been  outhned  is  remarkable 
both  in  itself  and  in  its  product,  the  rehgious  ideas  of 
the  Old  Testament.  How  far,  it  may  be  asked,  does  the 
history  enable  us  to   explain  that  product  ?     In   other 


I.]     THE  HISTOKY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS      17 

words,  what  are  the  most  characteristic  features  of  the 
history,  and  what  have  they  contributed  to  the  resultant 
literature  ?  In  the  first  place,  the  nation  was  exposed  to  a 
remarkable  series  of  foreign  influences.  This  was  due  partly 
to  the  geographical  position  of  Palestine,  lying  as  it  did  on 
the  high-road  from  East  to  West  and  West  to  East,  and 
between  Egypt  and  Assyria,  the  great  world-powers  of 
antiquity,  partly  to  the  comparatively  rapid  succession 
of  pohtical  changes  in  these  world-powers,  and  in  the 
surrounding  nations,  which  marked  the  thousand  years 
of  Old  Testament  history.  The  alleged  influence  of 
Assyrio-Baby Ionian  '  monotheism  '  on  the  nomadic  rehgion 
of  Israel  may  be  left  out  of  account,  as  a  speculation 
without  definite  proof  or  probabihty.  But  when  the 
Israehtes  entered  Canaan,  and  passed  from  nomadic  to 
agricultural  hfe,  they  were  brought  into  a  new  world 
just  because  of  the  relatively  high  civihsation  of  Palestine. 
Even  the  mere  change  of  occupation  would  have  affected 
their  religious  conceptions,  for  ancient  Hfe  and  ancient 
rehgion  were  very  closely  interwoven.  In  course  of 
time  Yahweh  came  to  be  conceived  as  the  giver  of  the 
produce  of  the  land  conquered  through  His  aid.  It  was 
natural,  therefore,  for  them  to  suppose  that  He  ought  to 
be  worshipped  somewhat  as  the  former  inhabitants  had 
worshipped  their  dispossessed  BaaHm.  The  institutions 
of  Israehte  worship,  its  rehgious  festivals,  and  sacrificial 
customs,  appear  to  have  been  drawn  largely  from  the 
practices  of  Canaan.  The  holy  places  of  the  land,  each 
with  its  sacred  stone  and  wooden  post,  passed  over  to 
the  victorious  invaders,  and  became  the  sanctuaries  of 
Yahweh.  The  same  relation  holds  of  the  three  great 
festivals  of  the  Jewish  year.  The  Feast  of  Unleavened 
Bread,  the  Feast  of  Weeks,  the  Feast  of  Booths  are  all 
shown  by  the  details  of  their  observance  to  be  agricul- 
tural in  character — i.e.  they  could  not  have  belonged  to 
a  period  prior  to  settlement  in  Canaan,  and  were  most 

B 


18       EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

probably  adopted  from  the  Canaanites.  Even  the  prophets 
themselves,  who  afterwards  become  so  distinctive  a  feature 
of  Hebrew  history  and  religion,  are  genetically  related 
to  an  older  non-moral  type  of  Nebi'im,  who  are,  perhaps, 
hke  the  holy  places,  the  festivals,  and  the  general  details 
of  sacrifice,^  a  contribution  of  Canaan  to  Israel's  develop- 
ment. All  this  was  the  more  natural  because  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Canaan  belonged  to  the  same  division  of  the 
Semitic  races  as  did  the  IsraeUtes  ;  the  language  of  the 
Canaanites  was  practically  the  same  as  that  of  their 
Hebrew  invaders.^  But,  besides  this  positive  influence 
of  rehgious  custom,  there  was  a  negative  influence  of  con- 
trasted principle,  which  had  a  profound  effect  on  the 
rehgious  leaders  of  Israel.  BaaUsm,  as  a  form  of  sensual 
nature- worship,  stood  in  direct  opposition  to  the  sterner 
Yahwism  of  mountain  and  camp.  In  Canaan  these 
antithetical  types  of  rehgion  were  brought  face  to  face, 
and  there  is  often  no  profounder  influence  on  any  rehgion 
than  that  in  which  it  recognises  its  own  antithesis.  In 
addition,  however,  to  this  contact  with  the  local  worship 
of  the  Canaanites,  Israel  was  now  increasingly  brought 
into  relation  with  the  far-reaching  Assyrio-Babylonian 
world  of  thought.  For  the  Tell-el-Amama  Letters, 
written  about  1400  B.C.  in  cuneiform  writing,  prove  that 
the  Assyrio-Babylonian  influence  had  been  dominant  in 
Palestine  at  an  earher  period.  When  Hebrew  thought 
did,  at  length,  advance  to  speculation  on  the  origin  and 
early  history  of  the  world,  as  in  the  first  eleven  chapters 
of  Genesis,  it  was  as  much  influenced  by  Babylonian  myth 
and  legend  as   we  are  to-day  by  evolutionary  science. 

1  Cf.  the  Phcenician  sacrifices  named  in  the  Marseilles  inscription.  There 
are  evidences  even  of  human  sacrifice  amongst  the  Hebrews  (cf.  that  of 
Jephthah's  daughter)  as  well  as  amongst  the  surrounding  peoples  (Mesha's 
son  to  the  god  Kemosh).  On  the  significance  of  the  story  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Isaac  (Gen,  xxii.),  see  chap.  vi.  §  2  (esp.  p.  147). 

2  This  is  seen  from  Canaanite  words  occurring  in  the  Tell-el-Amarna 
Letters,  and  from  the  names  of  places  mentioned  there,  and  in  Egyptian 
inscriptions. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     19 

How  far  the  idea  of  Yahweh  as  supreme  God  of  the  world 
was  the  result  of  Babylonian  influence  in  Palestine,  must 
remain  matter  of  conjecture ;  the  evidence  here  points 
rather  to  independent  development  than  to  direct  bor- 
rowing.^ The  Code  of  Hammurabi,  dating  from  about 
2150  B.C.,  provides  many  parallels  to  the  '  Laws  of  Moses ', 
and  the  resemblance  in  the  form  of  the  laws  is  specially 
remarkable.  We  may  also  trace  the  influence  of  Babylon 
in  a  number  of  other  directions,  such  as  the  architecture 
and  furniture  of  the  Temple,  and  the  Jewish  calendar. 
Renewed  contact  with  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  Empire 
from  the  ninth  to  the  sixth  centuries  B.C.,  resulted  in  the 
absorption  of  the  northern  kingdom,  and  in  the  intro- 
duction of  foreign  cults  into  the  southern.  But  the  still 
closer  contact  of  the  Exile,  under  prophetic  guidance, 
enlarged  the  outlook  of  that  remnant  of  the  nation  which 
maintained  its  distinctive  religious  hfe — a  hfe  effectively 
distinguished  by  the  practice  of  circumcision  and  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Foreign  influence  is  less 
apparent  in  the  customs  of  the  post-exihc  community, 
because  the  institutions  of  Judaism  were  now  more  or  less 
fixed,  and  this  isolated  society,  gathered  around  the  Holy 
City  and  conscious  of  its  peculiar  mission,  was  less  plastic 
to  the  moulding  hand.  But  in  the  realm  of  thought 
the  Persian  period  was  hardly  less  influential  than  the 
Babylonian.  The  new  problems  of  human  destiny  and 
of  the  possibihties  of  life  beyond  death,  the  rise  of  the 
conception  of  Satan  as  the  enemy  of  God,  the  doctrine 
of  many  angels,  through  whom  the  transcendent  God 
mediated  His  rule  of  the  world — these  developments  must 
certainly  have  been  influenced,  if  not  occasioned,  by  Persian 

\  *  The  kernel  and  true  meaning  of  the  monotheistic  conception  of  the 
universe,  as  unfolded  by  the  prophets,  is  lost  by  any  endeavour  to  place  the 
conception  on  a  level  with  the  monotheistic  strain  that  is  vaguely  but 
unquestionably  present  in  the  speculations  of  the  Babylonian-Assyrian 
priests'  (J  astro  w,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and 
Assyria,  p.  417). 


20       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

religion.  The  influences  of  Greek  religious  thought  were 
sharply  arrested  in  Palestinian  Judaism  by  the  success 
of  the  Maccabaean  revolt,  and  the  Old  Testament  shows 
less  of  their  direct  effect  than  we  might  have  expected. 
But  those  influences  produced  a  copious  hterature  amongst 
the  Jewish  Dispersion,  and  culminated  in  the  philosophic 
work  of  Philo.  Truly,  though  in  a  sense  other  than  the 
prophet's,  it  might  be  said  that  the  desirable  things  of  all 
nations  were  brought  to  fill  the  Jewish  Temple  with  glory. 
A  second  striking  feature  of  the  history  of  Israel  is 
the  scope  it  afforded  to  individual  initiative.  Side  by  side 
with  the  remarkable  series  of  foreign  influences  acting 
on  Israel  from  without,  there  is  an  equally  remarkable 
series  of  prominent  personahties  guiding  Israel's  Hfe  and 
thought  from  within.  When  we  look  down  the  fine  of 
Israel's  leaders  from  Moses  to  Ezra,  and  consider  how  each 
contributes  to  the  shaping  of  Old  Testament  rehgion; 
when  we  notice  how  each  fresh  crisis,  in  what  we  should 
call  the  secular  history,  finds  a  spiritual  interpreter ;  when 
we  remember  how  such  men  as  Moses,  Samuel,  EHjah, 
EHsha,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Nehemiah  become  protagonists 
in  the  arena  of  national  hfe,  and  others  hke  Amos,  Hosea, 
Ezekiel,  Deutero-Isaiah,  Ezra,  stamp  their  personal  convic- 
tions on  the  rehgion  of  the  generations  that  follow  them,  we 
may  justly  say  that,  to  a  unique  degree,  this  is  a  history 
of  dominating  personahties.  Every  nation,  of  course, 
has  had  its  outstanding  men,  and  some  nations  might 
offer,  at  select  periods  of  their  history,  a  fair  parallel  to 
Israel  in  this  respect.  But  the  age  of  Pericles  at  Athens, 
or  the  last  century  of  the  Roman  Repubhc,  is  not  typical 
of  Greek  or  Roman  history  as  a  whole.  The  Hfe  of  Greek 
cities  doubtless  offered  abundant  scope  to  the  free  play 
of  individuahty,  but  the  divided  hfe  of  those  cities  hmited 
its  influence,  and  the  absence  of  an  exalted  national 
rehgion  meant  the  loss  of  the  highest  source  of  inspira- 
tion.   Roman  hfe,  under  both  Repubhc  and  Empire,  was 


I.]     THE  HISTOKY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     21 

a  unity  in  a  sense  in  which  Greek  never  was  ;  but  Repub- 
lican patriotism,  and  the  majesty  of  the  Empire,  aHke 
demanded  the  repression  of  the  individual.  Israel,  how- 
ever, at  least  during  the  greatest  periods  of  its  rehgion, 
combined  hberty  of  personal  action  with  the  unity  of  an 
intense  national  faith.  Owing  to  its  relatively  narrow 
compass  and  concentrated  position,  the  whole  nation 
could  be  reached,  and  its  life  shaped,  by  the  influence  of 
one  man,  to  a  degree  impossible  in  Greek  and  Roman 
civihsation.  Through  the  continuity  of  the  idea  of  God, 
the  influence  of  the  successive  individuals  was  concen- 
trated on  a  single  end,  and  devoted  to  the  guidance  or 
interpretation  of  a  singularly  varied  history,  in  the  light 
of  moral  principle.  The  combination  of  such  events 
and  of  such  personalities,  and  their  product  in  the  pro- 
phetic consciousness,  is  doubly  remarkable.  We  are 
justified  in  saying  that  Israel  was  in  a  peculiarly  favourable 
position  to  assimilate  the  most  varied  elements  from  the 
culture  of  the  ancient  world,  and  also  to  give  them,  through 
its  leaders  and  teachers,  the  highest  moral  and  spiritual 
interpretation. 

A  third  important  aspect  of  Israel's  history  is  the  self-con- 
sciousness of  the  nation  as  being  the  hearer  of  a  unique  religion. 
Perhaps  the  most  significant  fact  in  regard  to  any  nation 
is  the  idea  it  cherishes  of  its  own  destiny.  National  ideals, 
subtle  in  their  composition,  profound  in  their  effect,  are 
influences  shaping  successive  generations.  In  the  case 
of  Israel,  the  national  ideal  became  predominantly  reli- 
gious. The  nation  as  a  unit  was  pledged  to  Yahweh, 
and  Yahweh  to  the  nation.  The  prophets  through  whom 
the  national  self-consciousness  became  articulate,  recog- 
nised that  Israel's  rehgious  experience  was  a  solemn  trust 
and  a  great  responsibiUty.  Israel,  as  a  nation,  became 
conscious  through  its  prophetic  leaders  that  it  possessed 
a  rehgion  intrinsically  unique.  That  consciousness  was 
neither  so  early  nor  so  universal  within  Israel  as  has  often 


22       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

been  supposed.  But  the  narrow  intensity  of  devotion 
to  Judaism  which  has  made  the  Jew  consi)icuous  through- 
out all  the  centuries  is  already  visible  in  the  post-exiHc 
community  of  the  Old  Testament.  Behind  it  lies  a  proud 
consciousness  of  spiritual  superiority.  The  Roman  could 
not  understand  the  exclusive  attitude  of  the  Jew,  who 
rejected  the  working  compromises  of  religious  syncretism, 
and  would  not  show  tolerance  for  any  other  creed.  But 
Christianity  understood  it,  and  in  her  victorious  contest 
with  Gnosticism  by  this  sign  conquered.  The  tenacity 
of  the  Jewish  self-consciousness  is  seen  in  the  continuity 
of  the  nation  through  many  disasters  and  misfortunes. 
It  is  seen  especially  in  the  elasticity  of  hope,  by  which 
Israel's  sorrows  were  transformed  and  taken  up  into  the 
vision  of  a  higher  purpose.  The  self-consciousness  of 
Israel  shows  its  strength  in  the  constant  renewal  of  the 
Messianic  hope,  and  in  the  picture  of  Israel  as  the  suffer- 
ing Servant  of  Yahweh,  humbled  for  a  season  the  more 
gloriously  to  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  In  fact, 
without  this  peculiar  self-consciousness  of  Israel,  we 
could  not  explain  its  resistless  vitahty,  and  its  striking 
power  to  appropriate  and  transform  the  most  alien 
elements.  But  how  can  the  self- consciousness  itself  be 
explained  ?  In  the  form  of  the  relationship  between 
Yahweh  and  Israel  there  is  nothing  pecuUar.  To  find  a 
parallel  beHef,  there  is  no  need  to  go  further  than  Israel's 
kinsfolk  and  next-door  neighbours,  the  Moabites,  who 
(on  the  Moabite  Stone)  write  of  their  god  Kemosh,  as 
the  IsraeHte  at  first  writes  of  Yahweh.^  But  there  is  no 
parallel  to  the  inner  nature  of  that  relationship.  Its 
claim  to  be  unique  has  been  acknowledged  by  history. 
The  rehgion  of  Israel,  in  fact,  made  fuller  demands  on 
human   nature   (morahty),   and   gave   fuller   opportunity 

1  When  Moab  has  been  conquered  by  Omri  of  Israel,  it  is  'because 
Kemosh  was  angry  with  his  land '.  It  is  Kemosh  who  says  to  Mesha,  the 
Moabite  king,  *  Go,  take  Nebo  against  Israel '. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     23 

to  divine  revelation  (ethical  monotheism)  than  any  other. 
Both  features  are  seen  most  clearly  in  the  prophetic  con- 
sciousness of  Israel,  which  is  the  nation's  seK- conscious- 
ness at  its  highest.  Beyond  Israel's  '  men  of  the  Spirit', 
as  has  well  been  said,  we  cannot  press  for  further  explana- 
tion of  Israel's  unique  rehgion — unless  we  believe,  with 
Israel,  that  they  were  indeed  men  of  God.^  If  divine 
truth  were  uniquely  given  to  any  nation,  then  we  might 
expect  just  such  a  pride  in  its  possession,  based  on  the 
reality  of  an  experiential  knowledge  of  God,  as  charac- 
terised the  self- consciousness  of  Israel. 

The  three  features  of  the  history  already  indicated 
belong  to  its  intrinsic  nature,  and  are  independent  of 
any  judgment  we  may  form  of  the  value  of  its  results, 
the  religious  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  fourth  deserving  to  be  noticed,  which  becomes 
apparent  in  the  Hght  of  those  results  and  of  their  incor- 
poration in  Christianity.  From  this  standpoint,  perfectly 
legitimate  to  the  general  historian,  we  may  say  that  there  is 
a  remarkable  teleoloyical  or  '  providential '  aspect  of  the  history 
of  Israel.^  From  stage  to  stage  of  that  history  there  is  a 
continuous  narrowing  of  the  arena,  a  condensation  of  issues, 
a  bringing  to  focus,  as  it  were,  of  the  national  experience.^ 
The  loose  relationship  of  nomads  passes  into  the  more 
settled  Ufe  of  tribal  groups,  and  common  perils  bring  these 
groups  into  the  unity  of  a  state.  Israel  in  the  north  becomes 
an  object-lesson  in  the  ways  and  thoughts  of  Yahweh, 
from  which  Judah  profits.  The  '  righteous  remnant ' 
of  Judah  returns  from  the  Exile  with  definitely  religious 
ideals,  and  practically  becomes  the  single  city  of  Jerusalem, 

1  Wellhausen,  in  Die  Kultur  der  Gegenwart,^  (i.)  iv.  1,  p.  15. 

2  This  statement  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  the  history  of,  say,  Greece  or 
Rome  does  not  also  possess  a  teleological  aspect,  but  simply  to  show  the 
extent  and  nature  of  this  feature  in  the  case  of  Israel.  If  God  controls 
history  to  rational  ends,  we  may  trace  the  working  of  His  purpose  in  the 
means  by  which  those  ends  are  reached. 

3  The  gradual  conceutration  of  the  patriarchal  stories  on  Jacob  is  a 
reflection  of  this  historic  truth. 


24       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

with  its  one  Temple  spiritualised  by  passionate  devotion 
into  the  vestibule  of  the  unseen  world.  This  political 
poverty  finds  compensation  in  ever-increasing  spiritual 
wealth.  The  stereotyped  ritual  becomes  the  backbone 
of  a  Hving  and  vigorous  faith,  strong  enough  to  defy  the 
bitterest  persecution.  The  ideas  create  a  Uterature 
destined  to  become  fundamental  to  the  religion  of  many 
peoples  in  many  lands.  Those  who  in  any  real  sense 
respond  to  the  message  of  that  Hterature  to-day  are  bound 
to  feel  that  a  uniting  purpose  runs  through  the  history 
which  created  it,  and  that  the  spirits  of  Israel's  prophets 
were  not  finely  touched  but  to  fine  issues.  Each  stage 
in  the  process  lasted  long  enough  to  contribute  some- 
thing vital  to  those  issues.  National  freedom,  before  it 
was  lost,  created  a  nation's  self- consciousness.  Prophetic 
teaching,  before  its  voices  fell  to  silence,  created  the  Old 
Testament.  The  Temple-cult  nourished  the  piety  of 
far-off  synagogues  till  they  had  prepared  the  world  for 
a  new  and  progressive  faith.  The  earthly  Jerusalem 
did  not  suffer  destruction  until  it  had  created  the  ideal 
of  the  heavenly.  If  that  final  result  be  indeed  thought 
worthy  of  a  divine  purpose,  then  the  purpose  is  surely 
traceable  in  the  history  that  leads  up  to  it  in  so  remark- 
able a  manner.  For  it  is  a  history  progressively  creative 
of  the  great  ideas  which  are  the  foundation  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

The  final  chapter  of  this  book  will  discuss  the  claim 
that  these  ideas  constitute  part  of  a  divine  revelation. 
But  this  at  least  may  be  said  at  the  outset,  in  view  of 
the  sahent  features  of  Israel's  history — that  no  other 
history  known  to  us  is  more  fitted  to  be  the  channel  of 
such  a  revelation.  A  modem  philosophy  of  revelation 
will  certainly  demand  that  there  be  the  genuine  inter- 
play of  divine  and  human  personahty,  both  active}  It 
will  seek  to  relate  the  '  chosen '  nation  so  vitally  to  its 

1  See  chap,  ix,  §  1. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS     25 

historical   environment   that   the   contribution   of   other 
nations  is  real,  and  the  measure  of  truth  they  possessed 
is  fully  recognised.     Its  ultimate  proof  will  rest  on  the 
experiential  and  intrinsic  worth  of  the  reUgion,  the  same 
evidence   that    created    the    faith    of    Israel.      It    will 
ask    for    the    inter-relation    of    the  ideas  with  the  past 
and   with   the   future,   in   such   a   way   that    the    unity 
of  all  human  history  is  established.     All  these  require- 
ments are  to  be  found  in  the  history  of  Israel  when  it 
is  critically  studied.     The  issue  is  not  as  to  the  presence 
here  or  there  of  a  '  supernatural '  element  amid  '  natural ' 
conditions.     That  distinction,  so  used,  is  a  legacy  from 
the   categories   of   the   eighteenth   century.     We   gain   a 
much  richer  idea  of  revelation,  a  much  deeper  insight 
into  the  divine  activity,   when  we  conceive  the  evolu- 
tion  of    the   nation's   Ufe   as   both   natural  and   super- 
natural   throughout,    and    not    as    a    mosaic    of    both. 
Instead  of  a  series  of  interruptive  invasions  and  interjected 
commands,  in  a  more  or  less  ahen  environment,  we  see 
that  both  environment  and  personaHty  are  themselves 
in  the  hands  of  God,  however  fully  He  grants  the  exercise 
of  personal  freedom.     He  manifests  Himself  in  the  contour 
hnes  of   Palestine  and  the  influences  of   racial  kinship, 
in  the  pressure  of  surrounding  nations  and  the  course 
of  national  poHtics,  not  less  truly  than  in  the  prophetic 
consciousness  which  is  guided   to   the  interpretation  of 
these  phenomena.    No   purely  naturahstic   formula  will 
ever  explain  Israel's  history.     It  is  true  that  in  the  national 
life,  as  in  the  individual,  personaHty  often  seems  to  shade 
off  into  the  physical  organism  and  material  environment 
below,  as  well  as  to  touch  the  divine  being  above.     But 
the  environment  simply  draws  the  hmits  within  which 
the  personality  of  the  nation  or  the  individual  ultimately 
exercises  its  freedom.     The  essence  of  religion,  and  there- 
fore of  revelation,   Ues  in  the  real  spiritual  intercourse 
of  God  and  man,  which  human  freedom  and  divine  grace 


26       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

make  possible.  God  is  concerned  with  all  human  life, 
not  with  that  of  Israel  alone.  Yet  Israel's  history  becomes 
fully  intelhgible  only  when  we  construe  it  as  the  articula- 
tion of  divine  ideas  to  a  unique  end  through  the  fellowship 
of  God  and  man. 

The  rehgious  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament  are  studied 
most  naturaUy  when  they  are  regarded  as  organic  elements 
in  the  one  comprehensive  idea  of  reUgion.  They  were 
slowly  developed  in  closest  relation  to  the  history,  and 
in  response  to  the  successive  demands  of  Israel's  experi- 
ence. The  rehgion  of  Israel  underwent  many  changes, 
but  faith  in  the  fellowship  of  God  and  man  gave  unity 
to  its  eventful  history,  and  supphed  that  inner  continuity 
which  is  the  mark  of  a  true  development.  The  most 
characteristic  feature  of  the  rehgion  was  its  moral  emphasis. 
Under  the  influence  of  that  emphasis,  the  ideas  of  God 
and  of  man  gained  in  meaning  and  majesty,  until  they 
demanded  a  wider  arena  than  the  pohtical  history  of  a 
single  nation.  The  God  of  Israel  was  recognised  as  the 
one  God  of  all  the  world  on  whom  human  nature  and 
destiny  everywhere  depended.  Rehgion  brought  the 
divine  personahty  into  such  effective  relation  with  the 
human,  and  the  human  with  the  divine,  that  the  fellow- 
ship of  God  and  man  became  a  Uving  fact  of  experience. 
God  made  Himself  known  to  man,  particularly  through 
the  spoken  word  of  the  prophet  and  the  written  law  of 
the  priest.  Man  could  venture  to  approach  God  through 
particular  places,  times,  persons,  and  offerings.  But 
two  disturbing  elements  were  felt  within  this  fellowship 
of  God  and  man.  There  were  human  acts  which  were 
beUeved  to  ahenate  God ;  there  was  human  suffering, 
regarded  as  the  evidence  of  His  ahenation.  Here  lay 
the  pecuhar  problems  of  Israel's  rehgion.  But  the  hope 
of  Israel  rose  beyond  sin  and  suffering  into  confidence 
in  the  covenanted  help  of  God,  into  the  vision  of  His 
effective  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  Israel  and  the  world. 


I.]     THE  HISTORY  AS  THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  IDEAS    27 

into  the  consciousness  of  a  divine  purpose  to  be  realised 
even  through  human  sorrows.  These  are  the  ideas  which 
are  embodied  in  the  reHgion  of  Israel.  If  their  intrinsic 
worth,  their  permanent  value,  their  universal  appHcation, 
can  be  maintained  against  all  possible  objections,  then 
the  history  of  Israel  which  created  these  ideas  constitutes 
a  revelation  of  divine  truth. 


28       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   IDEA  OF   RELIGION 

There  have  been  many  attempts  at  framing  a  definition 
of  religion,  and  probably  no  single  formula  will  ever 
command  universal  assent.  To  the  theist  this  difficulty 
is  rather  a  confirmation  of  his  faith  than  a  hindrance 
to  it.  If  there  be  a  real  fellowship  between  God  and  man, 
a  superhuman  PersonaUty  in  active  relationship  of  help- 
fulness towards  the  dependent  human  personahty,  reHgion 
is  a  reality  so  full  of  fife  that  it  is  as  hard  to  define  as  fife 
itself.  A  man's  reHgion  is  constantly  growing  with  his 
life,  and  a  nation's  reHgion  comprehends  the  experience 
of  many  generations.  In  God's  sight,  the  thousand  years 
of  Israel's  history  reflected  in  the  successive  contemporary 
records  of  the  Old  Testament  are  but  as  a  single  day; 
but  in  a  man's,  they  are  centuries  crowded  with  the  rich 
development  of  human  experience.  The  IsraeHte  of  post- 
exiHc  times,  worshipping  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem, 
might  confess  his  kinship  with  that  far-off  wandering 
Aramaean  who  had  been  his  ancestor,^  but  the  nomadic 
reHgion  had  been  absorbed  into  the  worship  of  an  agricul- 
tural community,  and  quickened  with  the  Hfe-blood  of 
prophetic  moraHty,  long  before  the  reHgion  of  the  Old 
Testament  assumed  its  final,  legaHstic  stage.^  The  im- 
pression of  that  reHgion  frequently  gathered  from  the 
Old  Testament  in  its  present  form  is  inadequate  to  the 

1  Deut.  xivi.  5. 

2  These  four  stages  are  clearly  characterised  in  Marti's  excellent  sketch, 
Die  Religion  des  Alien  Testaments,  translated  by  Bienemann,  in  the  'Crown 
Theological  Library '. 


".]  THE  IDEA  OF  EELIGION 


29 


historic  truth.     The  covenantal  relation  between  Yahweh 
and  Israel  is  often  represented  as  a  sort  of  commercial 
bargain— so  much  for  so  much— made  exphcit  from  the 
very  beginning.     The  most  characteristic  feature  of  the 
religion  seems  to  be  its  elaborate  ritual,  a  ritual  remote, 
in  many  of  its  ideas,  from  modem  thought.     On  the  other 
hand,  the  prophets  seem  to  be  continually  insisting  on 
familiar  moral  truths,  often  so  obvious  as  to  seem  unneces- 
sary when  we  have  translated  poetic  metaphor  into  homely 
prose.     But  this  general  impression  does  the  Old  Testa- 
ment great  injustice.     The  real  expression  of  its  rehgion 
is  not  a  written  Law — that,  however  important,  is  but 
one  of  its  later  phases ;    the  permanent  record  of  the 
rehgion  is  a  history,  brought  before  our  eyes  in  a  very 
varied  hterature.     Rehgion  is  always  related  to  history, 
even  when  it  claims  a  horizon  as  wide  as  humanity,  and 
builds    on    data    of   universal   significance.     The  ethical 
discipUne   of   the   Buddha   cannot   be   explained   except 
through  the  Hindu  rehgion  it  reformed,  and  the  Hindu 
doctrine  of  transmigration   which  it  incorporated.     The 
theology  of  the  Kur'an  reflects  the  personal  fortunes  of 
Muhammed,   and  the  social  and  rehgious  conditions  of 
Arabia  in  the  seventh  century  after  Christ.     Thus,  the 
rehgions   of   history   become   intelhgible   to   the   student 
only  as  he  follows  their  footsteps  to  ruined  shrmes,  and 
their  thoughts  to  abandoned  philosophies.     But  a  rehgion 
may  be  related  to  history  more  closely  than  through  the 
circumstances  of  its  birth.     History  may  itself  be  made 
the  divine  revelation.     The  foundation  of  the  temple  of 
rehgion  will  then  be  found,  not  in  the  psychological  analysis 
of  human  nature,  as  is  the  case  with  Buddhism,  nor  in 
a  theological  conviction  of  the  divine,  as  is  the  case  with 
Muhammedanism,  but  in  the  fortunes  of  a  whole  people, 
interpreted  as  the  work  of  God.     It  is  this  which  is  char- 
acteristic  of   the   rehgion   of   the   Old   Testament.     The 
emphasis  on  moral  disciphne  which  it  finally  achieves 


30       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

is  certainly  not  less  than  that  of  Buddhism.     The  place 
it  gives  to  prophetic  personahty  is  as  prominent  as  that 
claimed  by  Muhammed.     But  the  constant  and  under- 
lying strength  of   the  Old  Testament  rehgion  is  its  con- 
viction that  God  is  revealing  Himself  in  the  history  of  a 
family,  a  people,  a  community.     To  a  pecuhar  degree, 
therefore,  we  have  here  to  do  with  a  historical  reUgion.^ 
Even  the  ideals  of  the  Old  Testament  take  a  quasi-historical 
form.     In  the  full  noon- tide  of  the  actual  history  Israel 
threw  back  its  developed  consciousness  into  the  twilight 
that  went  before  the  dawn.     The  patriarchal  stories,  from 
this  standpoint,  are  the  picture  of  that  gradual  providence 
of  Yahweh  which  prepared  a  people  for  His  possession. 
Their  value  does  not  depend  upon  their  historicity,  but 
rather  on  the  simple  beauty  of  the  narratives  themselves, 
and    on  the  religious  idea  they  convey,   the   idea  that 
Yahweh  was  with  His  chosen  people  from  the  beginning.^ 
But  Israel  was  not  content  with  finding  support  for  this 
great  and  profound  idea  in  the  pre-Mosaic  past,  by  an 
intuition  that  penetrated  beyond  the  vision  of  the  historian. 
It  projected  the  same  faith  into  the  future,  and  created 
the  Messianic  Hope,  the  hght  of  Israel's  dark  days,  the 
inspiration  of  its  later  history,   its  immediate  point  of 
contact  with  its  greater  successor.     The  Messianic  con- 
sciousness of  Israel,  the  confidence  in  the  re-estabhshment 
of  a  Davidic  king  and  kingdom,  the  faith  in  the  super- 
natural restoration  of  the  future,  the  increasing  emphasis 
on  the  eschatological  side  of  religion,  already  begun  within 
the  Old  Testament— these  are  due  to  the  same  instinct 
which  created  the  story  of  Israel's  pre-Mosaic  past.     The 

1  'From  the  beginning  onwards,  the  Old  Testament  religion  and  its 
development  are  distinguished  from  the  other  ancient  religions  by  their 
conspicuously  historical  character*  (Stade,  Biblische  Theologie  dts  A.T., 

^'2  Yahweh  is  said  to  have  'elected'  Abraham  from  a  heathen  environment. 
'  Your  fathers  dwelt  of  old  time  beyond  the  River  ...  and  they  served  other 
gods.  And  I  took  your  father  Abraham  from  beyond  the  River,  and  led 
him  throughout  all  the  land  of  Canaan '  (Josh.  xiiv.  2,  3). 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  31 

truth  behind  both  is  not  the  truth  of  petty  detail,  the 
existence  at  some  remote  period  of  a  sheikh  called  Abraham, 
or  the  success  at  some  future  day  of  the  Zionistic  move- 
ment of  Judaism.  It  is  rather  the  same  truth  which 
is  sufficiently  confirmed  from  that  period  of  Israel's  story 
which  does  he  in  the  partial  light  of  history — the  truth 
that  Israel  was  not  only  the  people  of  Yahweh,  but  that 
Yahweh  was  the  living  and  ever-active  God  of  Israel, 
visible  in  history  as  its  Saviour  and  Redeemer  as  well 
as  its  Judge. 

In  the  reHgious  interpretation  of  this  history  the  emphasis 
should  fall  on  the  grace  of  God  in  helping  Israel,  the 
redemptive  attitude  which  spontaneously  prompts  Him 
to  come  to  Israel's  need.  As  is  elsewhere  said,  the  idea 
of  a  '  covenant '  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  Pharisaic  conception  of  the  relation 
between  man  and  God,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
Old  Testament  reUgion  as  a  whole  rests  on  faith  in  the 
divine  grace.  Yahweh  is  constantly  reveahng  Himself  in 
historic  acts  which  show  Him  as  Israel's  God.  '  A  manifest 
work  of  God,  a  prophet  of  God  to  interpret  it,  a  communit}"^ 
of  men  who  had  experienced  it  and  understood  it — such 
were  the  conditions  under  which  the  new  rehgion  arose  '.^ 
The  rehgion  of  Israel  begins  with  a  divine  deliverance 
from  Egypt,  and  it  constantly  expects  dehverance  from 
all  other  foes.  It  rises  to  the  great  idea  that  the  service 
of  God  needs  the  gift  of  His  Spirit  for  its  fulfilment.  It 
conceives  Him  as  keeping  in  constant  touch  with  His 
people  through  the  prophets.  All  this  is  quite  distinct 
from  such  a  commercial  relation  between  God  and  man 
as  characterises  the  rehgion  of  Rome,  at  least  on  its  pubhc 
side.2    It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  rehgion  of 

1  Guthe,  E.  Bi.,  col.  2221. 

2  This  must  not  be  regarded  as  an  adequate  characterisation  of  Roman 
religion  as  a  whole.  Warde  Fowler  (The  Religums  Experience  of  the  Roman 
People,  pp.  200  f.)  has  pointed  out  the  significance  of  the  private  vows. 


32       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

the  Old  Testament  is,  in  its  own  way,  as  truly  a  religion 
of  redemption  as  that  of  the  New,  though  the  redemption 
is  differently  conceived  and  nationalistically  applied. 
The  Decalogue  is  prefaced  by  the  words  'I  am  Yahweh 
thy  God,  which  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
out  of  the  house  of  bondage  '.^  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
calls  for  a  grateful  and  responsive  love  to  God  as  the 
ultimate  spring  and  source  of  obedience  to  His  command- 
ments. ^ 

It  is  this  conception  of  moral  obedience  to  God  as  the 
supreme  sacrifice,  and  not  the  elaborate  ritual  of  the  later 
days,  which  is  really  the  characteristic  feature  of  the 
worship  of  the  people  of  Yahweh.  '  Thus  their  beliefs 
about  the  origin  and  early  history  of  the  world,  their 
social  usages,  their  code  of  civil  and  criminal  law,  their 
rehgious  institutions,  can  no  longer  be  viewed,  as  was 
once  possible,  as  differing  in  kind  from  those  of  other 
nations,  and  determined  in  every  detail  by  a  direct  revela- 
tion from  heaven  :  all,  it  is  now  known,  have  substantial 
analogies  among  other  peoples — the  distinctive  character 
which  they  exhibit  among  the  Hebrews  consisting  in  the 
spirit  with  which  they  are  infused,  and  the  deep  rehgious 
truths  of  which  they  are  made  the  exponents  '.^ 


1.  The  Unity  within  the  Development 

The  period  of  religious  development  which  can  be  traced 
most  clearly  in  the  Old  Testament,  extends  from  the 
foundation  of  the  national  faith  under  Moses  to  the  estab- 
hshment  of  the  religion  of  the  law  under  Ezra.  There 
are  hterary  products  of  a  later,  and  traditions  of  an  earlier 

But  he  admits  that  '  in  the  vota  publica  ...  we  undoubtedly  find  something 
in  the  nature  of  a  bargain — covenant  would  be  a  more  graceful  word — with 
a  deity  in  the  name  ot  the  State '  {op.  cit.,  p.  202). 

1  Ex.  XX.  2,  Deut.  v.  6.  2  Deut.  vi.  5. 

3  Driver,  Modern  Research  as  Illustrating  the  Bible,  p.  16. 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  33 

period,  but  none  of  them  afford  the  materials  for  confident 
historical  reconstruction.  Within  the  central  period 
indicated,  we  may  most  easily  reaHse  the  fact  and  the 
nature  of  the  development  by  taking  cross-sections,  as  it 
were,  at  convenient  points.  These  are  given  by  three  such 
representative  documents  as  the  Song  of  Deborah  (Jud.  v.), 
the  Book  of  Amos,  and  the  narrative  of  Nehemiah  viii.-x. 
They  are  short  enough  to  be  read  in  rapid  succession  ; 
their  approximate  dates  are  beyond  question ;  they  are 
characteristic  illustrations  of  the  spirit  and  nature  of 
the  reUgion  of  Israel  at  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end 
of  its  most  plastic  period. 

The  Song  of  Deborah  shows  the  position  of  affairs  in 
the  north  of  Palestine,  within  a  generation  or  two  of  its 
invasion  by  Israel.  A  number  of  Hebrew  tribes  settled 
around  the  Great  Plain  are  aroused  to  united  action  against 
the  pressure  of  the  unconquered  Canaanites  who  occupy  it. 
Yahweh  is  the  common  war-God  of  these  tribes  ;  they  are 
brought  together  through  their  loyalty  to  Him,  and  their 
confidence  in  His  aid  on  the  field  of  battle.  He  dwells 
afar  in  the  southern  desert  of  their  former  nomadic  Hfe  ; 
but  He  comes  at  their  need,  and  manifests  Himself  especi- 
ally in  the  storm  and  the  swollen  river  which  contribute 
to  the  defeat  of  the  foe.  Because  Israel  is  '  the  people  of 
Yahweh',  the  battle  is  His,  and  those  who  fight  come  to 
the  help  of  Yahweh.  The  battle  is  consequently  both  a 
moral  and  a  refigious  act ;  tribes  are  praised  or  blamed 
as  they  do  or  do  not  meet  their  obhgation  to  share  in  it, 
and  the  highest  praise  is  given  to  the  Kenite  woman,  Jael, 
who  slew  (as  we  should  say,  treacherously)  the  fugitive 
general  of  the  enemy,  Sisera.  Here,  then,  is  a  concrete 
example  of  the  earliest  reUgion  of  Israel  as  a  united  people. 
The  vivid  poem  shows  the  intensity  of  the  national  reHgion  ; 
it  also  suggests  the  moral  potentiaHties  of  a  faith  capable 
of  becoming  the  centre  of  common  action  and  social 
obligation.    Neither    the    rehgion    nor    the    morality    is 


34       EELTGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

Christian.  But  without  the  energy  and  intensity  of  their 
effective  union  on  the  battlefield  of  the  Plain,  it  would 
be  much  harder  to  understand  the  subsequent  develop- 
ments. 

The  Book  of  Amos,  four  centuries  later,  records  the 
convictions  of  an  individual  thinker  which  are  not  yet 
the  faith  of  a  nation.     His  denunciations  also  reveal  the 
general  character  of  the  contemporary  religion  of  Israel. 
The  people  no  longer  think  of  Yahweh  as  coming  from 
Sinai  to  help  Israel  in  battle ;    He  has  become  the  God 
of  Canaan,  worshipped  at  Canaan's  holy  places,  and  with 
Canaan's  often  Ucentious  rites.     Yahweh  is  the  sufficient 
guarantee  of    the  nation's  safety  from   foreign    attack; 
'  the  day  of  Yahweh  '  will  dehver  Israel  from  all  her  foes! 
But  He  is  not  concerned  with  the  social  and  moral  con- 
ditions within  the  nation;    the  luxury  of   the  wealthy 
and  their  oppression  of  the  poor  can  go  on  side  by  side 
with  zealous  worship  at  Bethel  and  Gilgal.     Against  these 
popular  ideas  the  prophet's  message  stands  out  in  clearest 
contrast.     Yahweh   is   not   simply   the   God   of   Canaan, 
nor  is  He  hnked  to  Israel  in  so  purely  mechanical  a  fashion 
that  His  intervention  must  necessarily  be  in  Israel's  favour. 
On  the  contrary.  He  who  stands  above  all  nations,  and 
judges    them  all,   will    assuredly  judge    most   rigorously 
the  people  to  whom  He  has  given  exceptional  privileges. 
The  standard  of  His  judgment  is  not  ritual  devotion  but 
moral  conduct :    '  I  hate,  I  despise  your  feasts,  and  I  will 
take   no    dehght    in    your    solemn    assembhes.  .  .  .  But 
let  judgment  roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as 
an  ever-flowing  stream'.     In  such  words,  contemporary 
rehgion  is  directly  challenged  by  Amos ;    the  sanctions 
to  which  he  appeals  are  the  warnings  akeady  given  by 
Yahweh   through   agricultural  and   other   disasters,   and 
above   all,   through   the   appearance   of  Assyria   on   the 
poHtical  horizon.     The  downfaU  of  the  northern  kingdom 
in  the  course  of  the  next  generation  confirmed  his  words, 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  35 

and  largely  helped  to  make  his  convictions  an  essential 
part  of  the  national  reHgion. 

The  narrative  of  Nehemiah  viii.-x.  describes  events  httle 
more  than  three  centuries  later  than  Amos,  but  it  pictures 
quite  another  world  of  reUgious  hfe — that  of  the  post- 
exiUc  community.  The  kingdoms  of  North  and  South 
have  shrunk  into  a  small  religious  community,  clustered 
around  the  rebuilt  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  as  its  one  and 
only  rehgious  centre.  The  emphasis  naturally  falls  on 
the  sacred  past,  and  the  story  significantly  begins  with 
the  request  of  the  people  for  '  Ezra  the  scribe  to  bring 
the  book  of  the  law  of  Moses,  which  Yahweh  had  com- 
manded to  Israel '.  Reverence  for  the  sacred  roll  is  ex- 
pressed by  the  account  of  its  solemn  reception ;  the 
people  rise,  Ezra  utters  a  blessing,  the  people  say  '  Amen, 
Amen ',  and  bow  to  the  ground,  when  he  opens  the  roll. 
This  voice  from  the  past  makes  a  deep  impression  on 
them  ;  '  all  the  people  wept  when  they  heard  the  words 
of  the  law'.  Their  leaders  begin  on  the  very  next  day 
to  carry  out  its  details.  Within  the  same  month,  after 
an  address  reviewing  the  providence  of  God  in  Israel's 
history,  a  covenant  is  made  and  sealed  by  the  leaders, 
and  adopted  by  '  all  them  that  had  separated  themselves 
from  the  peoples  of  the  lands  unto  the  law  of  God '.  This 
separation  is  secured  by  abstinence  from  all  inter-marriage 
with  them,  by  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and  by 
other  distinctively  Jewish  ordinances.  The  closing  words 
of  the  narrative  may  stand  as  the  fitting  motto  for  post- 
exiUc  Judaism  :  '  we  will  not  forsake  the  house  of  our 
God '. 

None  reading  these  portions  of  scripture  attentively 
can  fail  to  see  how  profoundly  and  materially  the  reHgion 
of  Israel  has  developed  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifth  cen- 
turies B.C.  The  contrasts  in  the  succession  of  warrior, 
prophet,  and  scribe,  of  sword,  hving  voice,  and  written 
word,  are  significant  of  far  deeper  changes  in  the  concep- 


36      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

tion  of  what  religion  itself  is.  Yet  there  must  be  some 
unifying  principle  that  hnks  these  stages  together,  and 
comprehends  them  all,  and,  with  them,  all  the  intervening 
minor  changes.  The  unity  is  that  of  a  continuous  faith 
that  Yahweh  is  Israel's  God,  that  His  personahty  is  as 
real  and  hving  as  man's,  that  the  relation  between  the 
corporate  personahty  of  Israel  and  the  divine  Person  is 
moral,  and  that  no  other  deity  counts  at  all. 

This  conclusion  will  be  confirmed  and  illuminated   if 
we  gather  up  the  prominent  rehgious  features  in  the  three 
cross-sections  that  have  been  taken.     In  the  hfe  revealed 
by  the  Song  of   Deborah  there  is  a  national  relation  to 
Yahweh  ;   we  might  indeed  say  that  these  scattered  tribes 
are  constituted  a  nation  by  their  common  relation  to  Him. 
Rehgion    is    not    something   individuahstic,    the    private 
intercourse  of  a  man  with  his  God;    the  individual  is 
related  to  God  through  the  nation,  and  his  worth  appraised 
by  reference  to  the  national  hfe  and  interests.  It  is  apparent 
that  there  is  no  question  of  any  other  God  for  Israel. 
Whatever  may  be  true  of  other  nations,  Israel  stands  in 
a  pecuhar  and  exclusive  relation  to  Yahweh,  one  which 
may  rightly  be  called  moral,  though  the  Song  is  concerned 
with  the  battlefield.     For  the  battlefield  is  the  centre  of 
the  national  hfe  and  interests,  and  the  God  who  controls 
it  will  not  fail  to  prove  adequate  in  other  spheres.     The 
warrior's  loyalty  to  his  fellow-Israehtes  and  to  Yahweh 
implies  a  relationship  no  less  moral  than  that  which  is 
demanded  in  the  social  and  civic  intercourse  of  daily  hfe. 
This   moral   relationship,  however,  becomes   much   more 
prominent  in  Amos,  where  it  gains  a  wider  apphcation 
and  a  new  estimate  of  its  worth.     It  is  apphed  to  the  whole 
range  of  the  social  hfe  of  Israel,  as  well  as  to  the  battle- 
field.    It  is  exphcitly  contrasted  with  the  ritual  worship, 
and  is  declared  to  be  the  one  essential  offering.     The  moral 
experience  of  man  is  here  made  the  interpretative  prin- 
ciple in  the  conception  of  God,  a  step  of  the  most  profound 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  37 

significance  for  religion.  Human  personality,  as  represented 
in  the  prophetic  consciousness,  becomes  the  channel  of  re- 
velation of  the  divine  morahty.  The  great  sanction  of  this 
morahty  is  the  whole  course  of  the  history  of  Israel  and 
its  neighbours.  Morahty  is  no  private  attitude,  no  merely 
social  or  tribal  custom  ;  it  becomes  the  law  of  the  world, 
as  God  governs  it.  Events  have  a  meaning,  and  that 
meaning  is  moral.  The  moral  consciousness  of  man  is 
thus  made  the  sufficient  clue  to  the  fortunes  of  the  peoples. 
In  the  rehgion  of  the  Law,  as  introduced  by  Nehemiah 
and  Ezra,  we  have  lost  the  freshness  and  informahty  of 
this  appeal,  but  the  principles  it  represents  are  made 
accessible  to  those  who  are  not  prophets.  The  written 
Law  is  Yahweh's  sufficient  revelation  of  His  will.  It 
becomes  the  expHcit  statement  of  the  covenant  between 
Him  and  His  people.  Loyalty  to  it  is  loyalty  to  Him, 
and  such  loyalty  means  separation  from  the  uncleanness 
of  those  who  do  not  know  Him,  as  Israel  knows  Him,  with 
that  intimacy  of  knowledge  which  His  grace  has  made 
possible. 

It  is  clear  that  the  emphasis  falls  on  Yahweh  in  this 
continuous  relation  of  fellowship  between  man  and  God. 
He  is  active  both  in  history  and  in  human  consciousness. 
He  is  to  be  interpreted  by  the  highest  attribute  of  human 
personahty,  its  moral  consciousness.  Such  a  faith  in 
the  moral  and  exclusive  relation  between  Israel  and 
Yahweh  is  the  nucleus  around  which  many  elements 
from  without  gather  and  crystalHse  in  the  course  of  the 
generations.  Such  a  faith  is  also  the  condition  for  the 
development  of  the  ideas  of  God  and  man.  For  these 
ideas  become  what  they  are  in  the  Old  Testament  through 
their  inter-relation — the  idea  of  God  as  actively  gracious 
and  self-reveahng,  and  the  idea  of  man  as  ultimately 
dependent  on  God. 


38       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

2.  The  Moral  Emphasi& 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  Old  Testament 
fellowship  of  God  and  man,  i.e.  its  moral  emphasis,  is 
obviously  related  to  the  clear  conception  of  personaUty, 
human  and  divine,  in  Israel's  reUgion.  PersonaUty 
always  impUes  moral  obUgation,  and  finds  its  highest 
expression  through  morality.  Where  personaUty  is  ade- 
quately recognised,  there  will  necessarily  be  the  recog- 
nition of  moraUty.  The  parent  who  wisely  respects  the 
personaUty  of  his  child  provides  the  only  environment 
in  which  the  moral  consciousness  of  the  child  will  pro- 
perly develop.^  When  Israel  was  a  child,  Yahweh  loved 
him,  and  caUed  His  son  out  of  Egj^t  into  those  condi- 
tions of  freedom  which  made  moral  development  possible. 
From  the  earUest  days,  therefore,  at  which  the  national 
history  can  be  said  to  have  begun,  i.e.  from  Sinai,  it  is 
justifiable  to  claim  that  a  moral  relation  existed  between 
Yahweh  and  Israel.  However  Umited  in  its  original  scope, 
and  crude  in  its  applications,  that  moral  relation  was 
certain  to  develop  with  the  advance  in  the  knowledge 
of  Yahweh' s  personaUty,  and  with  Israel's  experience  of 
relationship,  as  a  corporate  personaUty,  to  Him.  The 
'  legislation '  of  Moses  ip  the  nomadic  period  ^  must  have 
been  very  different  from  the  elaborate  structure  of  the 
Pentateuch.  But  the  recognition  of  an  obUgation  to 
Him  who  had  deUvered  Israel  from  Pharaoh  would  itself 
be  a  moral  nucleus  for  all  subsequent  development ; 
sooner  or  later,  the  customs  of  the  tribe,  the  '  things  that 
were  done  in  Israel',  would  gain  a  new  significance  as 
'laws  of  Yahweh'.  The  exact  extent  and  nature  of  the 
earUer  moraUty  is  of  quite  secondary  importance  as  com- 
pared with  the  fact  that  the  reU^on  of  Yahweh  was 
essentially  moral  in  principle.     This  has  been  traced  with 

1  Cf.  Herrmann,  Ethik,^  p.  169. 

2  Ex.  xviii,  ;  cf.  Doughty's  description  of  the  administration  of  justice  in 
the  desert  at  the  present  time  {Arabia  Deserta,  i.  p.  249). 


Il]  the  idea  of  EELIGION  39 

some  reason  to  the  circumstances  of  its  origin  :  *  Israel's 
religion  became  ethical  because  it  was  a  rehgion  of  choice 
and  not  of  nature,  because  it  rested  on  a  voluntary  decision 
which  established  an  ethical  relation  between  the  people 
and  its  God  for  all  time  '.^ 

The  Old  Testament  is  undoubtedly  the  most  profoundly 
moral  book  which  antiquity  can  offer.  Its  moral  emphasis 
cannot  be  adequately  represented  by  the  quotation  of 
a  number  of  striking  verses,  such  as  Micah's  '  What  doth 
Yahweh  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love 
mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  '  Similar 
utterances  selected  from  the  hteratures  of  other  religions 
would  not  prove  that  they  possessed  Israel's  emphasis 
on  morahty.  This  is  shown  rather  by  the  part  which 
moral  ideas  have  taken  in  the  development  of  the  rehgion, 
notably  in  the  prophetic  teaching  of  the  eighth  century, 
which  has  already  been  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Amos. 
But  before  this  moral  development  culminates  in  the 
great  prophets,  its  course  can  be  traced  in  such  words  as 
those  of  Nathan  to  David  concerning  Bathsheba,  and 
those  of  Elijah  to  Ahab  concerning  Naboth's  vineyard. 
The  ideas  which  underlie  the  earher  narratives  of  the 
Pentateuch  also,  show  that  the  prophets  of  the  eighth 
century  were  not  without  like-mir^ded  predecessors.  Nor 
could  we  explain  the  success  of  the  prophets  as  shown  in 
the  pervasive  influence  of  their  principles  in  almost  every 
branch  of  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  unless  some 
general  sympathy  with  those  ideas  already  existed.  We 
see  that  influence  ahke  in  the  codes  of  law^  and  in  the 
philosophy  of  history,^  in  the  confessions  of  personal 
rehgion  *  and  in  the  practical  precepts  of  every-day  life.^ 

1  Budde,  The  Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  p.  38. 

2  Cf.  Deut.  y.  14,  15  with  Ex.  xx.  10,  11 ;  in  the  Deuteronomic  code  the 
Sabbath  law  acquires  a  philanthropic  instead  of  a  purely  religious  motive. 

3  The  historical  books  have  been  edited  by  writers  under  the  influence  of 
Deuteronomic,  t.e.prophetic,  principles. 

4  E.g.,  Pss.  XY.,  xxiv.  5  As  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 


40      KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

One  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  this  moral  emphasis 
is  afforded  by  the  chapter  in  which  Job  challenges  the 
justice  of  God  by  the  review  of  his  past  Ufe.  It  is  signi- 
ficant of  the  degree  to  which,  at  all  events,  the  later  rehgion 
is  '  morahsed ',  that  all  except  one  ^  of  the  numerous  mis- 
deeds Job  repudiates  would  be  condemned  from  the 
standpoint  of  universal  morahty.  Nothing  could  more 
forcibly  express  the  fact  that  morahty  is  the  heart  of  Old 
Testament  rehgion.  Even  the  Priestly  Code,  with  all  its 
elaborate  precautions  for  ceremonial  '  hohness ',  is  still 
ti  large  measure  a  moral  document,  the  outcome  of  a 
passion  for  perfection  that  shall  be  worthy  of  Yahweh.^ 

This  vital  union  of  morahty  and  rehgion  had  important 
consequences  for  both,  as  it  always  must  have.  Morahty 
gained  new  and  powerful  sources  of  inspiration  and  support. 
The  consciousness  of  personal  fellowship  with  God,  and 
of  the  presence  of  His  Spirit,  reinforced  the  moral  aspira- 
tions, and  created  a  new  confidence  that  they  might  be 
reahsed.  The  moral  interpretation  of  history  brought 
support  from  without  to  the  moral  loyalty  within ;  for 
He  who  spoke  in  the  demands  of  private  conscience  was 
the  God  who  humbled  or  exalted  nations.  Not  less  was 
rehgion  exalted  and  enlarged  by  the  projection  of  moral 
experience  into  the  unseen  world.  When  Hosea  argued 
from  the  moral  relations  between  his  adulterous  wife  and 
himseK  to  those  between  Israel  and  Yahweh,  the  principle 
involved  was  more  important  than  that  which  Newton 
discovered  when  he  hnked  a  falhng  apple  to  a  moving 
star.  It  made  a  spiritual  pathway  along  which  thought 
could  and  did  move  with  confidence.  It  is  not  an  accident 
that  the  first  exphcit  demand  for  faith  in  God  ^  should 

1  xxxi.  26  f. :  see,  further,  the  discussion  of  '  Moral  Holiness '  (chap.  vi. 
§4). 

2  Lev.  xi.  44. 

3  Isaiah  to  Ahaz  :  *  If  ye  will  not  believe,  surely  ye  shall  not  be  established 
CIs.  vii.  9) ;  but  the  great  example  of  Abraham's  faith  (Gen.  xr.),  if  not  the 
remark  that  Yahweh  '  counted  it  for  righteousness '  (verse  6),  appears  a 
century  earlier. 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  41 

come  to  us  from  the  eighth  century,  when  rehgion  was 
seen  to  deal  with  a  reahn  in  which  moral  experience  held 
true.  Morahty  and  religion  strengthened  each  other,  and 
their  union  in  the  Old  Testament  prepared  for  their  more 
majestic  union  in  the  New  Testament,  where  the  con- 
centration of  a  powerful  rehgious  dynamic  on  the  homeliest 
duties  and  relationships  of  men  has  for  its  background 
a  moral  judgment  that  is  chronicled  in  history.  The 
greater  detail  and  more  Hmited  area  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment make  these  characteristics  more  immediately  im- 
pressive. Yet  they  are  really  the  continuation,  refined 
through  the  personaHty  of  Jesus,  of  the  moral  emphasis 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Old  Testament  has  also  taught  the  world  one  of 
the  two  great  ways  of  conceiving  what  morality  essen- 
tially is.  As  we  owe  '  ideals  '  to  Greece,  so  we  owe  '  laws 
of  God '  to  Israel.  The  enhghtenment  of  the  conscience 
of  the  prophets  as  to  the  social  and  moral  Hfe  of  their 
age  was  for  them  a  divine  revelation,  as  it  may  still  remain 
for  us,  whatever  be  the  psychological  analysis  of  the  con- 
viction. Ultimately,  the  living  conscience  was  replaced 
by  the  written  Law,  which  owed  its  moral  energy  and 
rehgious  outlook,  though  not  its  contents,  largely  to  the 
work  of  the  prophets  themselves.  But  whether  the 
immediate  authority  was  primary  or  secondary,  whether 
men  listened  to  the  prophet  as  he  spoke,  or  to  the  Law 
which  the  scribe  had  written,  they  were  taught  to  regard 
morahty  as  the  ordinance  of  God  for  man,  and  duty  as 
essentially  the  obedience  of  the  human  will  to  the  expressed 
and  revealed  will  of  God.  To  the  ordinary  reader  of 
the  Bible  this  way  of  conceiving  morahty  has  become 
so  famihar  that  it  seems  obvious  ;  he  is  hardly  conscious 
that  any  other  is  possible.  But  even  the  most  cursory 
study  of  ethical  sj^stems  will  show  that  this  is  but  one 
way  amongst  many,  and  that  the  dominance  of  this  idea 
in  our  ordinary  rehgious  thinking  is  part  of  our  debt  to 


42       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

IsraeL  In  Greece,  for  example,  the  trend  of  thought 
was  very  difierent.  Morality  was  conceived  in  relation 
to  the  human  rather  than  to  the  divine  personahty.  Its 
characteristic  note  was  not  obedience,  but  harmony ;  the 
reahsation  of  an  ideal  of  due  proportion,  a  conformity 
to  nature  as  against  convention.^  In  fact,  some  of  the 
most  striking  differences  between  Greek  and  Hebrew- 
Jewish  reHgious  ideas  can  be  traced  to  the  distinction 
between  moraHty  and  religion  in  the  former  case,  and 
their  union  in  the  latter. 

Two  quahfications  must  be  made  to  any  favourable 
estimate  of  the  moral  emphasis  in  the  rehgion  of  the  Old 
Testament,  apart  from  the  obvious  fact  that  the  morality 
is  itself  progressive,  and  is  always  to  be  judged  in  relation 
to  its  own  age.  The  first  of  these  relates  to  the  presence 
of  so  large  a  non-moral  element  in  the  Law  which  Judaism 
canonised.  From  the  time  of  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  the 
Priestly  Code  was  accepted  as  a  divine  revelation.  Not 
long  after  their  time,  apparently,  this  was  combined  with 
Deuteronomy  and  the  narratives  known  as  J  and  E  to 
form  our  present  Pentateuch,  which  became  the  primary 
basis  of  the  Jewish  religion,  as  it  remains  until  the  present 
time.  There  is  much  in  the  Pentateuch  of  permanent 
moral  worth,  capable  of  continuing  the  ministry  of  the 
prophets  whom  it  overshadowed  in  the  popular  estimation. 
But  there  is  also  much  that  is  simply  a  survival  from  pre- 
prophetic  days,  such  as  the  laws  of  purification,  and  the 
distinction  between  clean  and  unclean.  As  mere  sur- 
vivals in  a  literary  record,  they  would  not  detract  from 
the  intrinsic  value  of  the  moral  teaching.  But,  by  the 
canonisation  of  the  Law,  these  survivals  are  all  placed  on 
the  same  level  of  authority  as  the  moral  elements.  In 
general,  that  ceremonial  expression  of  religion  which 
the  great  prophets  condemned  as  in  itself  valueless  is 
given  a  place  of  honour  equal  to  that  of  moraUty  in  the 

I  Cf.  Dewey  and  Tufts,  Ethics,  p.  111. 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  43 

divine  revelation.  'It  is  clear',  admits  a  S5mipathetic 
Jewish  exponent  of  the  Law,^  '  that  the  drawback  or 
misfortune  of  such  a  code  was  its  equal  accentuation  of 
the  ceremonial  and  the  moral'.  But,  whilst  this  qualifi- 
cation is  a  serious  one  for  the  Judaism  which  is  based  on 
that  Law,  it  is  of  much  less  account  when  we  can  afford 
to  regard  the  Law  itself  as  one  phase  of  a  long  develop- 
ment, admitting  of  retrogression  as  well  as  of  progress. 
Besides,  in  any  estimate  of  the  Jewish  rehgion,  we  must 
not  forget  the  passionate  loyalty  and  the  fine  devotional 
spirit  which  the  rehgion  of  the  Law  could  evoke.  Their 
memorials  are  written  for  all  to  read  in  the  First  Book  of 
the  Maccabees,  and  in  the  canonical  Book  of  Psalms. 

The  second  qualification  relates  to  the  utilitarianism 
of  Jewish  morahty,  especially  noticeable  in  the  '  Wisdom  ' 
literature  {e.g.  the  Book  of  Proverbs).  '  If  the  fear  of 
Jehovah  is  the  first  part  of  the  instruction  which  it  gives, 
the  art  of  getting  on  in  the  world  is  the  second  '.^  '  No 
Wisdom  book  finds  a  source  of  happiness  in  man's  love 
to  God  and  communion  with  Him'.^  In  regard  to  the 
obvious  limitations  of  the  Wisdom  literature,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  its  principal  aim  is  the  appHcation 
of  morahty  to  the  practical  circumstances  of  hfe,  and  that 
it  does  not  claim  to  be  a  complete  or  typical  statement 
of  the  whole  religious  outlook  of  the  'wise  men'.*  If 
these  books  are  silent,  as  they  are,  in  regard  to  the  con- 
temporaneous ritual  of  the  Temple,  they  may  equally 
be  silent  as  to  the  more  spiritual  motives  and  religious 
experiences  which  clustered  around  it.  Still,  it  remains 
true  that  the  doctrine  of  strict  retribution,  which  the 
prophets  and  Deuteronomy  enunciate,  has  its  own  perils. 
There  is  a  difference  of  tone  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs, 

1  Montefiore,  Hihhert  Lectures,  p.  478. 

2  Cheyne,  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile,  p.  137. 
»  Toy,  E.  Bi.,  col.  5335. 

4  A  similar  reminder  is  necessary  in  regard  to  the  Christianity  of  the 
second-century  Apologists. 


44       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [en. 

as  compared  with  the  moral  teaching  of  Deuteronomy, 
which  suggests  that  whole-heaited  love  for  Yahweh  is 
no  longer  the  primary  motive  to  obedience,  and  that  it 
is  now  overshadowed  by  the  secondary  motive,  the 
appeal  to  material  rewards  and  penalties.  The  highest 
moral  emphasis  of  the  Old  Testament  is  that  which 
makes  morality  not  so  much  a  means  to  the  end  of 
obtaining  reward,  as  an  offering  to  Yahweh,  prompted  by 
the  sense  of  His  gracious  help  and  favour. 

Some  would  add  a  further  criticism  of  the  moral  emphasis 
of  the  Old  Testament,  viz.  that  ethical  values,  after  all, 
are  not  the  only  values,  and  that  the  Old  Testament 
rehgion  is  impoverished,  both  by  its  comparative  dis- 
regard of  artistic  beauty,^  and  by  its  comparative  lack 
of  interest  in  speculative  truth.  Does  not  Greece  claim 
a  place  in  the  revelation  of  the  divine,  and  does  not  this 
almost  exclusive  moral  emphasis  in  the  rehgion  of  Israel 
constitute  an  ultimate  weakness  rather  than  a  strength  ? 
In  answer  to  this  objection,  it  may  be  said  that  there  is 
no  intention  in  this  volume  to  suggest  a  philosophy  of 
revelation  which  would  not  make  room  for  all  the  contri- 
butions of  all  the  peoples,  as  well  as  of  Israel.  But  moraHty 
is  uniquely  related  to  religion,  and  the  peculiar  strength 
of  Israel's  rehgion,  at  times  of  crisis  and  grave  peril,  lay 
in  just  the  intensity  and  concentration  which  sprang  from 
its  blending  with  morahty.  We  may  speak  vith  truth 
of  a  Puritanic  element  in  the  rehgion  of  Israel,  conspicu- 
ous long  before  devotion  to  the  written  word  became  its 
centre.  In  the  earhest  days,  it  is  seen  in  the  protest  of 
the  nomadic  conscience  against  the  culture  of  Canaan, 
one  of  Israel's  lei^acies  from  the  desert.  When  Israel 
settled  down  to  the  hfe  of  agriculture  in  Canaan,  and 
almost  necessarily  to  its  forms  of  religion,  there  were  some 
whose  loyalty  to  Yahweh  urged  them  to  condemn  the 

1  The  charm  of  Old  Testament  narrative,  and  of  its  lyric  poetry,  must  not, 
however,  be  forgotten. 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  45 

culture  which  had  such  an  accompaniment.  Accordingly, 
we  find  them,  under  the  name  of  Rechabites,  refusing, 
even  down  to  the  days  of  Jeremiah,  to  abandon  the  old 
nomadic  ways  of  Ufe.  They  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  vineyard  or  field  or  seed ;  they  drank  no  wine,  they 
lived  in  tents.  The  rehgious  significance  of  their  protest 
is  seen  in  the  close  relation  of  their  '  father',  Jonadab  the 
son  of  Rechab,  to  Jehu,  the  destroyer  of  Omri's  dynasty 
and  of  the  Baal- worshippers.^  They  were  opponents  of 
the  foreign  culture  (necessarily  bringing  with  it,  in  ancient 
civihsation,  a  foreign  rehgion)  which  Omri  and  Ahab  had 
introduced  ;  their  protest  was  at  once  moral  and  rehgious  ; 
its  intensity  led  them  to  denounce  the  new  life  which 
seemed  to  them  entangled  with  the  new  rehgion.  The 
great  prophets  did  not  join  them  in  such  a  protest,  though 
Jeremiah  clearly  honoured  them  for  their  convictions. 
But  even  the  prophets  look  back  to  the  days  of  the  desert 
as  characterised  by  a  simplicity  of  worship  and  a  loyalty 
of  devotion  in  painful  contrast  with  their  own  time.^ 
The  same  consciousness  of  what  is  often  the  moral  and 
rehgious  cost  of  culture  appears  in  Jeremiah's  contrast 
of  the  plain  life  of  Josiah  with  the  greater  luxury  of  his 
son.3  The  whole  relation  of  the  Old  Testament  rehgion 
to  art  is  but  a  wider  apphcation  of  the  same  principle. 
Such  limitation  was  the  price  paid  for  moral  intensity, 
a  price  often,  though  not  always,  paid  by  the  spirit  of 
Puritanism. 

It  is  this  moral  intensity,  then,  which,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  lifted  the  rehgion  of  Israel  above  that  of  all 
its  contemporaries,  and  gave  it  the  power  to  assimilate 
foreign  contributions  without  loss  of  its  native  strength 

1  2  Kings  X.  15-28.  With  the  Rechabite  attitude  towards  the  vineyard  of 
the  Canaanites,  cf.  the  story  of  Noah's  drunkenness  (Gen.  ix.  20  f. )  and  the 
vow  of  the  Nazirites  (Num.  vi.  3  ;  cf.  Jud.  xiii.  7,  Amos  ii.  11). 

2  E.g.,  Hos.  ii.  14,  15.  The  nomadic  seems  to  be  preferred  to  the 
agricultural  life  in  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel,  and  in  the  pictures  of 
patriarchal  times. 

'  Jer.  xxii.  14,  15, 


46       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

and  continuity.  As  was  indicated  in  the  opening  chapter, 
Israel's  history  is  remarkable  for  the  number  of  influ- 
ences operating  upon  it  from  without.  Had  it  not  been 
for  this  moral  intensity,  the  nature-worship  of  Canaan 
might  easily  have  permanently  degraded  the  rehgion  of 
Israel  to  its  own  low  level  of  sensuaUty.  But  the  moral 
instinct  of  the  nation  was  guided  by  its  rehgious  leaders 
to  '  take  the  precious  from  the  vile  '  ;  the  necessary  forms 
of  worship  were  borrowed,  whilst  the  immoral  features 
of  the  Baal-cult,  such  as  rehgious  prostitution,  were,  at 
least  ultimately,  rejected.  The  same  selective  moral 
sense  worked  on  both  the  legislation  and  mythology 
derived  from  Babylon,  and  gave  them  a  new  value  and 
meaning.  No  better  proof  of  the  inherent  vitahty  and 
moral  strength  of  the  faith  of  Israel  could  be  given,  than 
this  power  it  possessed  to  assimilate  and  transform  the 
various  elements  due  to  its  historical  environment. 

3.  The  Contribution  of  Semitic  Animism 

The  great  ideas  of  God  and  of  man  which  we  owe  to 
the  Old  Testament,  emerge  from  a  rehgious  experience 
in  which  the  eternal  God  gradually  revealed  Himself  to 
Israel  under  the  name  of  Yahweh.  Through  this  divine 
fellowship,  in  which  the  thoughts  and  feehngs  of  the  inner 
man  were  confirmed  by  the  moral  lessons  of  history,  there 
was  awakened  in  the  hearts  of  the  receptive  a  deep  sense 
of  obligation,  and  a  deeper  trust.  But  the  chief  forms 
in  which  this  fellowship  came  to  be  conceived,  the  ways 
in  which  the  more  personal  side  of  the  religion  found 
expression,  are  the  direct  continuation  of  primitive  beUefs 
common  to  the  Semitic  peoples.  These  may  be  classed 
together  under  the  general  name  of  Semitic  animism. 
Obviously,  they  stand  in  a  much  closer  relation  to  the 
subsequent  religious  development  of  Israel  than  those 
external  influences — Canaanite,  Babylonian,  Persian,  and 


11.]  THE  IDEA  OF  EELIGION  47 

Greek — which  have  already  been  noticed.  The  condi- 
tion of  their  survival  was  that  they  could  be  assimilated 
or  reconciled  to  the  reUgion  of  Yahweh.  Of  this  order 
are  the  general  ideas  of  human  life  and  death,  and  of 
existence  beyond  death.  We  can  easily  parallel  from 
other  peoples,  non-Semitic  as  well  as  Semitic,  the  idea  of 
the  breath  or  the  blood  as  identical  with  the  soul,  and  the 
attribution  of  psychical  characteristics  to  the  heart,  Hver, 
eye,  bones ;  the  funeral  customs,  such  as  the  mourners' 
meal  and  the  mutilation  for  the  dead,  are  by  no  means 
pecuHar  to  the  Hebrews ;  their  conception  of  Sheol,  the 
abode  of  the  dead,  has  many  points  of  resemblance  to 
the  Greek  Hades.^  The  demonology  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  peculiarly  scanty,^  as  compared  with  the  luxuriant 
growth  of  Babylonian  behefs,  and  the  universal  idea  of 
the  jinn  among  the  Arabs  ;  but  this  is  explained  by  the 
character  of  Yahwism,  which  would  tolerate  no  rivals. 
Many  ideas  and  practices  have  undergone  considerable 
change  in  the  process  of  adoption,  but  their  relationship 
to  general  animism  is  unmistakable.  Such  are  those  of 
the  ban,  or  taboo,  the  '  devotion '  of  a  city,  a  person,  or  a 
thing ;  the  importance  attached  to  the  spoken  word,  as 
seen  in  the  significance  of  blessings  and  curses  and  oaths  ; 
the  use  of  ephod  and  teraphim,  especially  for  oracular 
purposes ;  even  the  practice  of  circumcision,  which  became 
so  distinctive  a  mark  of  Judaism,  is  shown  by  comparative 
anthropology  to  be  originally  a  form  of  mutilation,  pre- 
paratory to  marriage,  practised  by  many  peoples. 

These  survivals  of  primitive  behef  and  practice  do  not, 
as  has  been  said,  materially  affect  the  cardinal  ideas  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Interesting  as  they  are  to  the  anthro- 
pologist, they  are  still  but  petrified  growths  in  comparison 
with  the  hving  faith  of  the  prophets.     But  the  Hebrew 

1  See  chap.  iv.  §  4. 

2  As  it  is,  we  have  references  to  se'irim,  lilith  (Ts.  xxxiv.  14,  xiii.  21), 
shniim  (Deut.  xixii.  17,  Ps.  cvi.  37),  'Alukah  (Prov.  xxx.  15);  perhaps 
'Azazel  (Lev.  xvi.  8)  belongs  here. 


48       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

psychology  which  was  directly  developed  from  Semitic 
animism  provides  the  cardinal  conception  of  God's  means 
of  contact  with  man — the  idea  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  together 
with  the  idea  of  human  personaUty  as  a  unity  of  soul  and 
body,  entirely  dependent  upon  God.  Both  ideas  will 
receive  fuller  discussion  in  their  proper  places  ;  they  are 
briefly  noticed  here  because,  without  them,  the  general 
idea  of  the  Old  Testament  reHgion  would  be  very  incom- 
plete. 

As  for  the  first,  the  animistic  conception  of  invasive 
spirits  (which  flourishes  so  abundantly,  without  marked 
difference,  in  the  atmosphere  of  Babylonian  polytheism 
and  demonology)  is  transformed  amongst  the  Hebrews 
into  the  idea  that  peculiar  and  abnormal  phenomena  in 
human  hfe  and  character  must  all  be  traced  to  one  source, 
Yahweh  {e.g.  Samson's  strength  and  Saul's  madness).  An 
important  consequence  of  this  unification  is  that  the  idea 
of  the  Spirit  of  Yahweh  develops  step  by  step  with  the 
idea  of  Yahweh' s  character,  and  ultimately  becomes 
ethical  and  spiritual  in  the  full  sense.  The  highest  ranges 
of  spiritual  experience  are  thus  conceived  to  depend  on 
the  co-operation  of  Yahweh ;  the  supphant's  supreme 
appeal  is  that  Yahweh  take  not  His  holy  Spirit  from  him. 
That  remarkable  and  unique  feature  of  Hebrew  religion 
which  we  call  the  prophetic  consciousness  is  thus  pro- 
foundly conditioned  by  Hebrew  psychology.^ 

In  contrast  with  the  dualistic  idea  of  body  and  soul 
which  is  characteristic  of  Greek  thought  as  a  whole,  the 
Hebrew  emphasis  falls  on  the  unity  of  personality.  The 
soul  does  not  continue  an  immortal  life  after  the  death 
of  the  body ;  it  goes  out  or  dies  with  the  body,  and  all 
that  is  left  is  the  shadowy  semblance  of  the  former 
self,  body  and  soul,  which  is  gathered  into  Sheol.  The 
result  of  this  hmitation  for  Hebrew  thought  is  a  remark- 
able concentration  of  attention  on  the  present  hfe.  The 
1  See  note  5  on  p.  117. 


II.]  THE  IDEA  OF  RELIGION  49 

problems  of  Hebrew  religion  call  for  present  solution.  The 
escape  from  their  pressure  by  a  doctrine  of  prior  existence 
or  future  adjustment  is  not  open.  Consequently,  the 
Hebrew  thinker  is  driven  in  on  himseK,  and  on  his  present 
relation  to  Yahweh.  It  is  Yahweh,  and  Yahweh  alone, 
who  besets  him  behind  and  before.  He  is  compelled 
to  fling  himself  on  Yahweh,  because  he  is  wholly  dependent 
on  Him.  This  explains  why  the  Hebrew  religion  can  rise 
to  such  heights  of  spiritual  splendour  as  characterise  the 
Book  of  Job  and  some  of  the  Psalms  ;  it  also  explains, 
or  helps  to  explain,  the  rich  spiritual  content  of  the  doctrine 
of  a  future  life,  when  at  length  (beyond  the  range  of  the 
Old  Testament,  except  for  some  tentative  beginnings)  that 
doctrine  is  evolved. 

Such  is  the  general  idea  of  rehgion  which  the  Old  Testa- 
ment presents.  Through  the  successive  phases  of  a  long 
development  it  displays  the  unity  of  an  ever  resurgent 
faith  that  Yahweh  will  not  abandon  His  people,  and  that 
none  other  god  can  claim  a  place  beside  Him.  In  the 
experience  of  that  faith,  the  conviction  is  begotten  that 
nothing  can  be  good  in  Him  which  is  evil  in  man,  and  that 
mercy  is  more  than  sacrifice.  This  moral  emphasis  fills 
with  new  meaning  the  Hebrew  ideas  of  divine  activity 
and  human  dependence.  '  In  the  case  of  no  other  people 
of  the  ancient  East ',  it  has  been  said,  '  do  we  find  the  con- 
ception that  the  whole  sacrificial  ritual  Ues  on  the  circum- 
ference of  religion,  and  is  not  religion  itself,  but  has  within 
it  merely  the  significance  of  a  sjmibol  '.^  We  must  not 
make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  every  Israelite  who 
participated  in  the  Temple  ritual  rose  to  this  height  of 
spiritual  outlook.  But  none  who  reads  attentively  the 
Psalter  of  that  Temple  can  doubt  its  presence  in  the 
case  of  some.  Its  significance  is  the  more  profound 
because  it  escapes  the  perils  of  Deism  on  the  one  hand, 

1  Sellin,  Die  cdttest.  Religion,  p.  17. 
D 


50       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [cii. 

and  of  some  doctrines  of  divine  immanence  on  the  other. 
This  is  a  feature  of  Old  Testament  rehgion  which  is  often 
missed.  The  elaborate  cult,  taken  by  itself,  left  man  and 
God  over  against  each  other,  negotiating  through  trans- 
actions on  a  plane  below  their  own  spiritual  nature.  But 
just  as  mediaeval  mysticism  learnt  to  transcend  the  worst 
features  of  mediaeval  sacerdotalism,  so  this  Hebrew 
'mysticism',  as  we  may  call  it,  rose  above  the  perils  of 
its  own  forms  into  the  personal  society  of  God.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  clear-cut  ideas  of  human  and  divine 
personality  made  impossible  such  an  inclusion  of  the 
human  within  the  divine  as  would  have  robbed  man's 
hfe  of  its  freedom  and  reality.  The  mutual  fellowship 
of  God  and  man  was  so  real,  so  intimate,  so  dramatically 
conceived,  that  it  boldly  expressed  itself  in  terms  and 
figures  dra^Ti  from  the  common  life  of  the  home.  The 
prophetic  ideas  of  God  as  Father  and  Husband  are  derived 
from  the  simplest,  deepest,  and  most  universal  forms  of 
human  fellowship.  With  such  thoughts  of  God,  Israel 
set  forth  on  its  spiritual  pilgrimage  into  the  world  of 
things  unseen,  and  through  them  it  became  the  pioneer 
of  rehgion.  So,  at  least,  it  may  seem  to  us.  But  to 
Israel  the  truth  was  rather  that  Yahweh  had  entered  the 
world  of  things  seen,  and  that  His  presence  was  mani- 
fested in  the  activities  of  providence  without,  and  the 
energies  of  the  Spirit  within,  the  life  of  His  people. 


iii.J  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  51 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   IDEA  OF   GOD 

The  nearest  approach  of  the  Hebrew  mind  to  the  defini- 
tion of  God  is  given  in  the  words,  '  I  am  Yahweh  thy  God, 
who  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  '.^  In  other 
words,  the  God  of  Israel  is  identified  as  the  agent  in  a 
historical  event  intimately  affecting  the  fortunes  of  Israel. 
This  conception  holds  good  for  the  whole  development 
of  the  idea  of  God.  He  is  conceived  not  as  abstracted 
from  human  life  but  as  revealed  within  it.  He  is  not 
Brahman,  comprehensive  of  the  universe,  which  issued 
from  him  and  returns  to  him,  when  the  cosmic  illusion  has 
run  its  course ;  He  is  not  the  Prime  Mover  of  Aristotle, 
attracting  the  evolving  life  of  the  world;  He  is  not  a  deity 
of  Olympus,  occasionally  interfering  with  human  fives 
when  the  fine  of  his  pleasures  crosses  them,  or  one  of  the 
gods  of  Epicurus,  dwelfing  afar  in  supreme  indifference 
to  human  affairs,  where 

*  Nor  ever  lowest  roll  of  thunder  moans, 
Nor  sound  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to  mar 
Their  sacred  everlasting  calm  '. 

He  is  Yahweh,  the  God  of  Israel,  known  for  what  He  is 
by  what  He  does.  He  is  the  unseen  partner  in  Israel's 
fortunes,  afflicted  in  all  their  afflictions.  Their  interests 
are  His,  and  His  ought  to  be  theirs. 

The  most  obvious  result  of  this  relation  is  seen  in  the 

1  Ex.  XX.  2. 


52       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

experiential  character^  of  the  conceptions  it  affords. 
They  keep  close  to  experience,  are  warm  with  the  blood 
of  human  life,  definite  with  the  outline  of  the  visible  event, 
capable  of  moving  men  to  emotional  response,  because 
never  divorced  from  their  original  human  setting.  The 
Old  Testament  idea  of  God  has  the  freshness  of  personal 
experience,  in  contrast  with  the  generalisations  of  abstract 
thought.  The  religions  of  the  surrounding  nations  are 
more  or  less  conventionalised  nature-rehgions.  The 
religion  of  the  Old  Testament  kept  the  unconvention- 
ahty  of  Hfe,  because  its  roots  struck  ever  deeper  in  the 
soil  of  history.  The  speculative  monotheism  ascribed  to 
Babylon  and  Egypt  is  dead,  because  it  was  never  much 
more  than  an  esoteric  theory.  The  rehgion  of  Israel, 
in  its  most  essential  features,  still  lives  within  the  larger 
arena  of  Christian  civihsation,  because  it  came  into  being 
to  meet  the  actual  needs  of  men,  and  can  still  meet  them. 

In  comparison  with  the  history  of  this  experience,  the 
various  Hebrew  names  of  God  would  tell  little  about 
Him,  even  if  their  etymologies  were  less  uncertain  than 
they  are.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  almost  the  only  statement 
about  the  Hebrew  names  of  God  which  would  command 
general  acceptance  from  modern  scholars  is  that  their 
original  meaning  is  unknown.  The  general  terms,  'El 
and  'Elohim  may  possibly  be  connected  with  the  idea 
of  '  strength '  ;  of  the  epithets,  Shaddai  and  'Elyon, 
the  latter  means  '  lofty '  ;  the  personal  name,  Yahweh, 
is  explained  in  the  well-known  passage  in  the  Book  of 
Exodus  either  as  'He  is '  {i.e.  '  becomes ')  or  '  He  will 
be '  the  suggestion  apparently  being  that  the  God  of 
Israel  actively  manifests  Himself  as,  or  will  show  Himself 
to  be,  what  He  is.^    Even  if  this  meaning  were  original, 

1  The  appeal  to  experience  is,  of  course,  found  in  every  religion,  but  its 
value  lies  in  the  idea  wliich  is  thus  elucidated.  In  the  Babylonian  religion, 
for  example,  resort  to  experience  issues  in  an  elaborate  system  of  divination 
and  astrology,  instead  of  a  moral  monotheism. 

2  Ex.  iii.  13  f.     If  this  difficult  passage  means  rather  that  God  will 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  53 

it  would  obviously  throw  us  back  on  actual  history  for 
the  unfolding  of  Yahweh's  character ;  but  in  all  prob- 
ability the  original  meaning  had  been  forgotten  when 
the  passage  came  to  be  written,  and  this  interpretation 
was  suggested,  as  is  frequently  the  case  wdth  Hebrew 
proper  names  in  the  Old  Testament,  because  it  seemed 
appropriate  to  the  context.  It  would  be  of  more  service 
to  us  to  know  the  early  history  of  the  name  Yahweh 
than  its  original  etymology.  It  is  characteristic  of  one 
of  the  early  documents  of  Genesis  (J)  to  employ  this 
name  from  the  Creation  onwards ;  ^  but  no  certain 
evidence  for  the  pre-Mosaic  use  of  the  form  Yahweh  (as 
distinct  from  Ya(h)u,  which  is  well  attested)  seems  yet 
to  have  been  brought  forward  from  extra-Biblical  sources.^ 
It  may  be  assumed  that  the  new  religion  of  Israel  was 
not  linked  to  an  entirely  new  divine  name.  Some  have 
conjectured  that  the  name  was  traditional  in  the  tribal 
group  with  which  Moses  was  connected.  Perhaps  the 
most  likely  hypothesis  is  that  which  regards  Yahweh 
as  the  God  of  the  Kenites,  with  which  tribe  Moses  became 
connected  by  marriage.  This  does  not  indeed  tell  us 
anything  more  about  the  pre-Mosaic  conception  of  Yahweh. 
But  it  helps  to  explain  why  Moses  should  have  become 
His  prophet,  as  it  does  other  incidents  in  the  Exodus 
narrative.  In  any  case,  however,  all  these  questions 
are  of  secondary  importance  compared  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  God,  under  the  name  of  Yahweh,  as 
historically  manifested  in  intimate  relation  to  Israel. 

continue  to  be  in  the  future  what  He  has  been  in  the  past  (cf.  Procksch, 
Das  Nordhebraische  Sagenhuch,  p.  199),  the  reference  will  still  be  to  the 
experience  of  history,  not  to  metaphysical  existence. 

1  Cf.  Gen.  iv.  26.  The  other  early  document  (E),  which  begins  with  the 
story  of  Abraham  (Gen.  xv.,  xx.  f.),  uses  the  general  term  'Elohim',  which 
is  also  employed  by  the  Priestly  Code  until  the  revelation  of  the  name 
'  Yahweh  '  to  Moses  (Ex.  vi.  3). 

2  The  alleged  Yahive-ilu  of  the  Hammurabi  period  is  doubtful,  but  Yau- 
hani  (Yau  has  created)  implies  the  worship  of  a  god  Yau  about  1500  B.C. 
A  useful  summary  of  the  facts  is  given  by  Paton,  in  E.R.E.,  iii.  p.  183; 
see  also  Rogers's  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  90  f. 


54        RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

This  relation  began  at  a  time  when  the  existence  of 
supernatural  beings  was  unquestioned.  They  were  as 
real  a  part  of  the  environment  within  which  they  operated 
as  the  earth  men  trod,  or  the  sky  that  roofed  them  in. 
Consequently,  the  Hebrew  reHgion  does  not  offer  any 
elaborate  reasonings  to  demonstrate  the  being  of  Yahweh  ; 
it  accepts  Him,  just  as  the  Moabites  accepted  Kemosh.^ 
A  modern  mind  would  instinctively  gather  the  facts  of 
experience,  natural  or  spiritual,  and  then  proceed  to 
argue  that  God  must  exist  as  their  explanation.  But 
this  is  the  reverse  of  the  procedure  which  characterises 
Hebrew  and  Jewish  thought  in  the  Old  Testament.  Yahweh 
is  taken  for  granted  ;  Job,  in  his  keenest  mental  anguish, 
denies  not  the  existence  of  God  but  simply  His  goodness. 
It  is  only  in  the  silent  thoughts  of  the  heart  that  the 
profane  or  churHsh  man  dares  to  say  to  himself,  '  There  is 
no  God ',2  and  even  then  his  thought  relates  to  God's 
activity,  not  to  His  existence.  Thus  the  Israehte  comes 
to  the  interpretation  of  history,  and,  eventually,  of  nature, 
with  an  axiomatic  faith  in  Yahweh.  When  he  found, 
as  he  so  often  did,  that  his  idea  of  the  character  and  atti- 
tude of  Yahweh  did  not  adequately  explain  what  happened, 
he  had  to  revise  the  contents  of  the  idea  itself,  thus  taking 
a  step  forward  in  religious  development. 

1.  The  Scope  of  Yahweh'' s  Sovereignty 

This  enlargement  in  the  idea  of  God  may  be  first  con- 
sidered in  regard  to  the  area  over  which  the  power  of 
Yahweh  3  is  conceived  to  extend.  The  development  pro- 
ceeds from  the  idea  of  the  nomadic  war-god  of  the  Mosaic 

1  Ultimately,  of  course,  belief  in  the  supernatural  involved  some  sort  of 
inference  from  special  experience.     See  the  first  paragraph  of  chap.  v. 

2  Pss.  X.  4,  xiv.  1.  Cf.  also  the  '  scepticism  '  of  the  author  of  Ecdesiastes. 
'  His  faith  in  a  personal  God  is  never  shaken  ;  atheism  or  materialism  is  not 
conceivable  in  an  ancient  Oriental  mind  '  (Davidson,  U.  Bi.,  col.  1160). 

3  '  The  true  content  of  the  idea  of  God  among  the  Semites  in  general  is 
lordship'  (Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischen  Heidentums,^  p.  145). 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  55 

period,  through  that  of  the  agricultural  land-god  of  Canaan, 
into  that  of  the  world-god,  and  up  to  the  absolute  mono- 
theism reached  by  the  time  of  the  Exile.  The  expansion 
takes  place  always  in  response  to  new  needs  and  problems. 
As  Robertson  Smith  has  said  of  Semitic  religion  in  general, 
'  the  help  of  the  gods  was  sought  in  all  matters,  without 
distinction,  that  were  objects  of  desire  and  could  not 
certainly  be  attained  by  the  worshipper's  unaided  efforts 
.  .  .  the  really  vital  question  is  not  what  a  god  has  power 
to  do,  but  whether  I  can  get  him  to  do  it  for  me,  and  this 
depends  on  the  relation  in  which  he  stands  to  me  '.^  The 
glory  of  Israel's  rehgion  was  that  this  relation  was  capable 
of  standing  every  strain  that  was  put  upon  it,  though  this 
capacity  was  disclosed  to  Israel  only  as  the  successive 
strains  were  actually  felt.  We  have  already  seen — e.g.  in  the 
Song  of  Deborah — that  the  power  of  Yahweh  is  primarily 
realised  on  the  battlefield.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  war  is  usually  part  of  rehgion  in  early  times  and 
among  primitive  peoples.  Warriors  are  consecrated  by 
special  rites  and  taboos  for  the  battle  ;  the  invisible  forces 
of  the  spiritual  world  form  a  very  real  part  of  their  allies. 
This  is  illustrated  by  the  early  narrative  of  Joshua's 
vision  before  the  attack  on  Jericho.^  He  sees  a  super- 
natural being  with  a  drawn  sword,  who  announces  him- 
self as  captain  of  Yahweh' s  host — in  this  case,  probably 
the  angels  who  will  assist  Israel  in  the  coming  battle. 
From  time  to  time,  in  such  ways  as  this,  Yahweh  brings 
or  sends  help  to  His  people  in  their  warfare.  Examples 
are  the  victory  over  Egypt  under  the  leadership  of  Moses, 
over  Canaan  under  that  of  Barak,  the  repulse  of  the 
Midianites  through  the  local  '  judges ',  and  the  final  over- 
throw of  the  Philistines  through  David.  Careful  study 
of  the  narratives  will  show  how  closel}''  Yahweh  is  identified 
with  the  victory  in  each  case.  The  human  leaders  are 
His  agents,  controlled  by  His  Spirit.  The  kingship  in 
1  Religion  of  the  Semites,  pp.  82,  83.  2  josh.  v.  13  f. 


56       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Israel  was  called  into  existence  in  the  first  place  for  military 
purposes,  and  to  this  end  the  prophet  Samuel  anointed 
Saul  as  the  first  king.  By  this  time  the  idea  of  Yahweh 
was  much  more  than  that  of  a  mere  war-god  ;  but  so  long 
as  Israel  was  struggHng  towards  pohtical  estabhshment 
and  consohdation,  the  idea  of  Him  as  the  helper  in  battle 
is  primary.  It  is  no  accident  that  amongst  the  earUest 
hterature  of  Israel  reference  is  made  in  the  Old  Testament 
to  '  The  Book  of  the  Wars  of  Yahweh '  ;  ^  such  a  title 
would  cover  His  most  important  aspect  for  Israel.  Equally 
characteristic  of  the  earher  ideas  of  Yahweh  are  the 
fortunes  of  the  Ark  in  the  war  with  the  Phihstines.^  It 
is  at  one  and  the  same  time  the  primitive  sanctuary  and 
the  battle  standard.  Whatever  were  the  associations 
that  first  gathered  round  the  name  of  Yahweh,  it  is  as 
the  giver  of  victory  over  other  peoples  that  He  first  appears 
in  the  literature  of  Israel. 

It  was  natural,  indeed  almost  inevitable,  that  the 
national  God  whose  presence  and  power  were  revealed 
in  such  victories  should  eventually  have  ascribed  to  Him 
a  larger  sovereignty  than  that  of  the  battlefield.  This 
extension  into  other  realms  of  national  interest  would 
be  the  tendency  from  the  very  beginning,  even  though 
clan  and  family  cults  may  have  maintained  themselves 
for  a  long  time.^  But  they  would  be  tolerated  just  because 
they  were  not  felt  to  challenge  the  exclusive  claims  of 
Yahweh  to  the  worship  and  devotion  of  Israel.  In  this 
sense  the  commandment  which  occupies  the  first  place  in 
both  the  earher  (Ex.  xxxiv.  14  f.)  and  the  later  (Ex.  xx. 
3  f.)  Decalogue  states  a  principal  characteristic  of  Yahwism 
from  the  first.  The  '  jealousy '  of  Yahweh  against  all 
rivals  *  was  an  important  feature  of  the  idea  of  God,  and 

^  Num.  xxi.  14.  ^  1  Sam.  iv.-vii.  ;  cf.  Num.  i.  35,  36. 

3  The  use  of  the  ^eranAim  perhaps  illustrates  this  ;  cf.  Budde,  The  Religion 
of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  pp.  59  f. 

*  Cf.  e.g.  Ex.  xxxiv.  14,  Num.  xxv.  11,  and  Kiichler's  article  in  ZeitschH/t 
fiir  die  alttestamentliche  Wissenscha/t,  1908,  pp.  42  f. 


Ill-]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  67 

an  effective  safeguard  against  the  perils  of  syncretism. 
To  the  principle  it  represents  Hosea  especially  appeals ; 
'  thou  Shalt  know  no  god  but  me,  and  beside  me  there  is 
no  saviour  '.i  Its  most  dramatic  iUustration  in  the  history 
of  Israel  is  found  in  the  story  of  Ehjah.  The  introduc- 
tion of  the  foreign  cult  of  Melkart  of  Tyre  under  Ahab 
was  a  direct  challenge  of  Yahweh's  claims,  to  be  clearly 
distmguished  from  the  slower  and  more  insidious  influ- 
ences of  the  local  cults  of  Canaan.  The  revolution  accom- 
phshed  by  Jehu  in  the  Northern  Kingdom,^  and  the 
related  movement  under  Jehoiada  some  years  later  in 
the  Southern  Kingdom,^  were  inspired  by  rehgious  zeal 
for  the  exclusive  claims  of  Yahweh.  Even  the  heathen 
reaction  under  Manasseh  may  have  been  plausibly  recon- 
ciled with  the  supremacy  of  Yahweh  within  Israel,  by 
the  subordination  of  other  deities  to  Him. 

The  conquest  of  Canaan  by  the  IsraeHtes  did  not  merely 
change  their  manner  of  hfe  from   the  nomadic   to   the 
agricultural ;     it   also  exercised  a  profound  influence  on 
their  rehgion,  and  opened  a  reahn,  quite  distinct  from  the 
battlefield,  into  which  the  sovereignty  of  Yahweh  might 
be  extended.     Agriculture  had  its  rehgion,  not  less  than 
warfare,  m  the  ancient  world.    Isaiah  says  of  the  farmer's 
skill,  'His  God  doth  instruct  him  aright,  and  doth  teach 
him^  .       The    Canaanites   worshipped    the   various    local 
deities  (Baahm)  as  the  givers  of  their  agricultural  produce. 
When  the  Israehtes  came  to  settle  down  beside  them  in 
the  portions  successfully  occupied,  it  may  have  been  the 
case  that  the  loyalty  of  Israel  to  the  war-god,  Yahweh, 
did  not  seem  infringed  by  worship  rendered  at  the  same 
time  to  the  local  gods  of  the  harvest  and  the  vineyard.^ 
But  the  completer  occupation  of  the  land,  and  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  Canaanites,   meant  the  absorption  of  their 

J  2  Kings  II.  Ms.  ixviii.  26. 

"  CI.  E.  Bi.,  s,v.  'Baal',  col.  403. 


58       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

deities.    The  attributes  of  the  local  Baalim,  the  super- 
natural lords  of  each  district,  passed  to  Yahweh,  who  was 
worshipped  at  the  various  local  sanctuaries,  and  probably 
without  much  change  of  ceremony.     There  was  here  a 
great  peril  for  the  reUgion  of  Yahweh,  a  peril  which  was 
recognised  by  what  has  been  aheady  called  the  Puritanic 
element  in  Yahwism.     Subtly  yet  unmistakably,  the  idea 
of  Yahweh  as  a  Person  standing  in  moral  relation  to  Israel 
was  in  danger  of  being  transformed  into  that  of  a  nature- 
god,  with  none  of  the  sterner  virtues   of  the  battlefield, 
and    with    many   sensuous    and    degrading    associations. 
Hence  the  attack  of  Amos  and  Hosea  on  the  rehgious 
ritual  of  their  time.     Hosea  refuses  to  recognise  as  the  true 
God  of  Israel  the  Yahweh  locally  worshipped,  and  would 
discard  the  name  '  Baal ',  which  has  been  transferred  to 
Him  (ii.   16).     It  is  the  Yahweh  who  brought  His  son 
Israel  out  of  Egypt,  the  God  of  history,  who  is  really  the 
giver  of  all  the  good  things  of  Canaan,  its  com  and  wine 
and  oil,  its  wool  and  its  flax  (ii.  8,  9).     Yahweh  has  become 
the  land-god,  equally  for  Hosea  and  for  those  he  is  criti- 
cising.    But,  for  Hosea,  Yahweh  is  much  more  than  the 
land-god,  the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift  the  land 
affords ;   He  is  the  God  of  the  desert  and  the  battlefield, 
who  has  revealed  to  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  nation 
His  moral  attributes  of  righteousness  and  love.     In  other 
words,  the  eighth- century  prophets  are  contending  for  a 
moral  against  a  physical  idea  of  God.     We  see  in  their 
protest  the  real  supremacy  of  the  rehgion  of  Yahweh  over 
the  alternative  nature-cults.     That  protest  was  continued 
in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  which  aimed  at  meeting 
the  peril  by  transferring  the  whole  worship  of  Yahweh 
from  the  old  local   sanctuaries,  with   all   their   powerful 
associations,  to  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.     The  reforma- 
tion of  Josiah  on  these  Hnes  in  621  was  perhaps  too  drastic 
to  have  been  permanently  successful,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  Exile  which  followed  shortly  after  it.     It  was  the  Exile 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  59 

which  made  possible  a  new  beginning,  with  the  Deutero- 
nomic  principle  of  the  single  sanctuary  for  its  accepted 
basis  ;  it  was  the  fact  that  the  returned  Israel  was  a  small 
community  settled  within  a  single  long  day's  walk  from 
Jerusalem  which  made  the  principle  practicable. 

The  third  and  final  stage  in  the  expansion  of  Yahweh's 
sovereignty  marks  the  extension  of  that  sovereignty  to 
include  the  whole  world.  The  original  claims  of  Yahweh 
were  for  Israel's  service.  Even  down  to  the  Exile,  Israel 
continued  to  admit  the  existence  of  other  gods  for  other 
nations.  Jephthah  beheves  that  Kemosh  gives  his  people 
a  territory  through  victory,  in  just  the  same  way  as  Yahweh 
gave  Amorite  territory  to  Israel.^  David  complains  that 
banishment  from  '  the  inheritance  of  Yahweh  '  will  mean 
the  necessary  worship  of  other  gods  in  other  lands. ^ 
Naaman  is  represented  as  asking  for  '  two  mules'  burden 
of  earth '  from  Yahweh's  land,  that  he  may  continue  to 
worship  Him,  by  a  sort  of  legal  fiction,  when  back  in  Syria.^ 
There  is  thus  no  formal  or  a  'priori  denial  of  the  existence 
of  other  gods  in  their  proper  realms.  That  which  actually 
happened  was  the  gradual  appropriation  of  those  realms 
by  Yahweh,  and  the  victorious  extension  of  His  sove- 
reignty over  other  countries,  until  their  gods  become  as 
colourless  as  shades  in  Sheol,  and  Isaiah  can  call  them  by 
a  mocking  term  that  denotes  their  worthlessness.*  At 
first,  the  victory  of  Yahweh  over  the  gods  of  other  nations 
depended  on  the  victory  of  Israel  over  the  nations  them- 
selves. But,  ultimately,  theology  outran  poHtics,  and 
Yahweh  was  recognised  as  the  one  and  only  God  of  all  the 
world,  to  whom  belonged  that  unique  and  supreme  place, 
even  from  the  very  beginning  of  all.  It  is  in  the  anony- 
mous prophet  of  the  Exile  that  we  first  meet  with  the 
clear  assertion  that  other  gods  do  not  exist  at  all :    '  Is 

1  Jud.  xi.  23,  24  ;  cf.  Num.  xxi.  29,  2  i  Sam.  xxvi.  19. 

'  2  Kings  V.  17  ;  cf.  xvii.  33  (the  foreign  colonists  in  Samaria). 
*  Is.  ii.  8,  etc.  I'elUim), 


60       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

there  a  god  beside  me  ?  ...  I  know  not  any'.^  But, 
centuries  before  this,  the  practical  '  henotheism '  which 
underUes  this  explicit  monotheism  was  already  operative. 
It  appears  in  the  earUer  story  of  the  creation  of  man  (J), 
in  which  all  human  Hf e  and  history  are  made  to  begin  from 
Yahweh,  although  as  yet  He  moves  within  nature,  rather 
than  stands  transcendently  above  it.  We  see  the  same 
position  more  expHcitly  asserted  when  Amos  represents 
Yahweh  as  ruhng  the  surrounding  nations,  and  saying 
to  this  nation  '  Go ',  and  to  another  '  Come ' ;  ^  or  when 
Isaiah  treats  the  might  of  Assyria  as  a  mere  instrument 
in  the  hand  of  Yahweh. ^  But  even  the  classic  formula- 
tion of  Israel's  '  monotheism  '  in  Deuteronomy,  '  Yahweh 
is  our  God,  Yahweh  alone  ',*  carries  with  it  in  the  same 
chapter  the  theoretical  recognition  of  other  gods.  Jeremiah 
might  consistently  have  denied  the  existence  of  other 
gods ;  Deutero-Isaiah,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  does  this,  and 
drops  the  keystone  of  the  monotheistic  arch  into  its  place, 
for  all  the  future  of  Israel.^ 


2.  The  Personality  of  Yahweh 

The  personal  name,  Yahweh,  denotes  a  personahty  and 
character  which  are,  in  many  respects,  as  distinct  and 
clear-cut  as  those  of  any  human  figure  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. The  attributes  of  a  storm-god  are  frequently 
ascribed  to  Yahweh,  but,  within  the  historic  period,  these 
are  no  more  than  favourite  forms  of  His  manifestation. 
Behind  the  thunder  which  is  His  voice,  the  cloud  which 
is  His  chariot,  the  hail  and  lightning  which  are  His  weapons, 

1  Is.  xliv.  8.  2  Amos  i.,  ii.  ;  cf.  ix.  7.  ^  is.  x.  5. 

*  Cf.  Deut.  vi.  4  and  14.  For  the  above  rendering,  see  the  present  writer's 
note  in  the  Century  Bible. 

'The  Jews  at  Elephantine  seem  to  have  associated  two  female  deities 
with  the  worship  of  Yahweh  (Meyer,  I)er  Papyrnsfund  von  Elephantine^ 
p.  59),  a  fact  which  nmst  be  explained  as  a  survival  of  the  (subordinative) 
polytheism  of  Manasseh's  time. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  61 

there  stands  a  personal  being  whose  thought,  feelings  and 
will  are  as  real  as  those  of  men.  The  divine  personaUty 
has,  of  course,  a  range  of  activity,  with  modes  of  percep- 
tion and  operation,  which  far  surpass  those  of  human 
personality.  But,  at  the  centre  of  this  activity,  accord- 
ing to  the  faith  of  the  earlier  centuries  at  least,  there  is  a 
personal  nature  so  much  hke  man's  that  it  can  be  expected 
to  manifest  itself  like  his.  That  is  why  the  Old  Testa- 
ment affords  so  vivid  a  portrait  of  Yahweh.  He  sets 
about  making  the  first  man  as  a  human  potter  would, 
though  the  hfe-giving  breath  He  imparts  differentiates 
the  result  from  any  work  of  man.  He  walks  in  the  garden 
He  has  planted,  just  as  a  man  would,  to  enjoy. the  cool 
of  the  evening,  and  His  suspicions  are  aroused  by  the  con- 
cealment of  the  man  and  woman,  and  confirmed  by  ques- 
tioning, in  human  fashion ;  but  He  has  a  far-reaching 
power  to  punish  the  guilty.  He  '  comes  down  '  to  see  the 
tower  which  men,  in  their  presumption,  are  building,  and 
He  scatters  them  from  the  same  motives  that  would  actuate 
some  human  king,  whose  sovereignty  was  imperilled  by 
the  doings  of  his  subjects ;  but  the  action  He  takes  has 
results  that  extend  beyond  the  power  of  men.  Yahweh 
even  repents  of  having  made  man,  and  takes  measures  to 
destroy  him,  but  the  smell  of  Noah's  sacrifice  is  so  sweet 
in  His  nostrils  that  He  never  repeats  the  Flood.  These 
statements  ^  and  others  like  them  in  the  earhest  Htera- 
ture  are  not  figures  of  speech.  They  show  just  that 
imaginative  mingling  of  human  and  superhuman  charac- 
teristics which  is  ever  found  on  the  palette  of  the  man 
who  is  trying  to  paint  a  picture  of  God.  The  warmth  and 
vitality  of  this  crude  and  naive  anthropomorphism  survive 

1  They  are  taken  from  the  document  known  as  J,  which  uses  the  personal 
name,  Yahweh,  and  makes  Him  visible  to  the  human  eye,  as  in  the  visit  paid  to 
the  tent  of  Abraham  (Gen.  xviii.  1  f.).  The  somewhat  later  narrative  known 
as  E,  which  characteristically  employs  the  general  term,  '  Elohira  ',  instead 
of  the  personal  name,  Yahweh,  does  not  allow  Him  to  be  visible  to  the 
wakiug  eye.  But  even  so  late  as  the  second  century  B.C.,  when  God  is  seen 
in  vision  He  is  an  aged,  white-haired  man  (Dan.  vii.  9). 


62       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

from  these  earlier  days  into  the  more  exalted  idea  of  God 
found  in  a  later  age.  In  the  post-exiHc  period,  Yahweh 
the  intimate  and  famiHar  friend  of  the  patriarchs  becomes 
the  transcendent  God  with  the  unspeakable  name,  who 
has  created  the  world  simply  by  a  series  of  majestic  com- 
mands (Gen.  i.).  But  this  later  idea  of  God  is  still  far 
from  being  a  mere  metaphysical  abstraction.  The  more 
physical  elements  in  the  earUer  anthropomorphism  are, 
indeed,  either  abandoned,  or  resolved  into  conscious 
imagery.  We  cannot  suppose,  for  example,  that  the 
dramatic  figure  of  Yahweh  as  a  blood-stained  warrior 
coming  from  Edom  (Is.  Ixiii.)  is  meant  by  the  prophet 
to  be  taken  Hterally.  Yet  the  psychical  side  of  the  anthro- 
pomorphism— the  ascription  of  human  thoughts,  feehngs 
and  desires  to  Yahweh — is  still  largely  unconscious  and 
uncriticised.  Thus,  whilst  that  laughter  of  Yahweh  at 
the  plans  of  earthly  kings  which  the  Psalmist  describes 
may  be  in  part  metaphor,  the  wrath  with  which  He  gives 
His  representative  on  earth  the  power  to  destroy  them  is 
to  be  taken  literally.  The  prophetic  and  devotional 
literature  of  Israel  owes  much  of  its  unique  power  to  the 
intensity  of  this  personahsation  (not  personification)  of 
Yahweh,  which  expresses  so  vividly,  and  yet  so  naturally, 
the  corresponding  intensity  of  religious  experience. 

This  growth  in  spirituaUty  of  the  idea  of  God,  through 
which  the  emphasis  falls  on  the  inner  side  of  personaHty, 
and  the  physical  or  quasi-physical  reference  is  minimised, 
would  have  been  seriously  retarded,  if  not  wholly  pre- 
vented, by  the  use  of  images  in  the  worship  of  Yahweh. 
But,  from  the  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  onwards, 
there  is  emphatic  rejection  of  such  material  representa- 
tions. This  first  appears  in  Hosea,  in  criticism  of  what 
he  calls  '  the  calf  of  Samaria  '.^  He  is  clearly  referring 
to  the  bull-images  erected  by  Jeroboam  i.  at  Bethel  and 

J  viii.  6  ;  cf.  liii.  2.  Amos  viii.  14  is  uncertain.  In  Deut.  iv.  12,  idolatry 
is  condemned  on  the  ground  that  He  who  was  heard  on  Horeb  was  not  seen. 


HI.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  63 

Dan,  when  the  kingdom  was  divided.^  The  narrative 
describing  this  incident  shows  that  the  worship  associated 
with  these  images  was  offered  to  Yahweh,  not  to  some 
rival  god,  and  further,  that  Jeroboam  is  probably  return- 
ing to  some  well-estabUshed  precedent,  and  is  not  intro- 
ducing a  dangerous  innovation  that  would  have  defeated 
the  very  object  he  had  in  view.  The  story  of  the  golden 
calf  made  by  Aaron  (Ex.  xxxii.)  throws  back  this  pre- 
cedent as  far  as  the  nomadic  period.  It  is,  however, 
much  more  probable  that  the  use  of  this  particular  emblem 
is  due  to  the  Canaanites  :  the  bull  is  the  natural  incarna- 
tion of  strength  amongst  an  agricultural  and  pastoral 
people,^  and  many  pottery  models  of  cows  have  been  found 
in  recent  excavations  at  Gezer.  We  have  no  evidence  as 
to  the  existence  or  non-existence  of  images  of  Yahweh, 
prior  to  the  settlement  in  Canaan  ;  the  prohibition  in 
the  Second  Commandment  ^  is  probably  due  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  prophetic  teaching.  EHjah,  EHsha,  and  Jehu 
show  no  disapproval  of  the  image-worship  practised  in 
the  Northern  Kingdom.  The  presence  of  the  Ark  in  the 
Temple  may  doubtless  have  helped  to  keep  the  Southern 
Kingdom  more  free  from  image- worship.  Many  scholars 
regard  the  ephod,  frequently  used  for  oracular  purposes, 
as  a  form  of  image  of  Yahweh.  The  teraphim  were  appar- 
ently of  human  form,  since  David  escaped  through  the 
substitution  of  one  of  these  for  himself  ;  *  but  they  seem 
rather  to  belong  to  the  class  of  household  gods  than  to  be 
images  of  the  God  of  the  national  cult.  Nor  are  we 
justified  in  asserting  that  the  '  brazen  serpent '  ascribed 
to  Moses,  and  retained  until  the  reformation  of  Hezekiah,^ 

1  1  Kings  xii.  28-33,  ^      , 

2  Cf.  the  terra-cotta  bull-heads  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Ascalon,  repro- 
duced by  Vincent,  Canaan  d'apres  V exploration  recente,  p.  169. 

3  Ex.  XX.  4.  In  the  'older  Decalogue'  contained  in  Ex.  xxiir.,  the 
prohibition  seems  to  be  of  the  peculiar  variety  of  images  called  'molten' 
(verse  17) ;  the  older  form  of  '  graven '  images  may  have  been  allowed. 

4  1  Sam.  xix.  13  f. 

5  Num.  xxi.  9 ;  2  Kings  xviii.  4. 


64       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

was  more  than  the  centre  of  some  demon-cult.  But 
whatever  be  the  facts  for  the  earlier  centuries,  the  attitude 
of  the  full-grown  rehgion  of  Israel  towards  images  is  un- 
mistakable. The  imageless  shrine  of  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
on  which  Pompey  and  his  officers  came  to  gaze,^  is  no 
accident  of  the  worship  of  Yahweh.  It  marks  the  growing 
spirituaUty  of  the  idea  of  God,  by  the  elimination  of  the 
material  symbol  as  inadequate.  The  principle  of  the 
imageless  shrine  was  carried  to  its  full  development  when 
the  worship  of  God  who  is  Spirit  was  lifted  into  a  reahn 
of  personal  relationship  independent  of  the  mountains  of 
Jerusalem  or  Samaria. 

It  is  to  the  instinctive  and  unchallenged  idea  of  divine 
personality  that  we  owe  the  vivid  and  dramatic  concep- 
tion of  God  which  characterises  the  Old  Testament,  No 
rehgious  literature  gives  so  graphic  and  ample  a  portrait 
of  divine  personality,  and  the  anthropomorphism  is 
inseparable  from  it.  As  already  stated,  the  earlier  anthro- 
pomorphism was  felt  to  be  unworthy  of  God.  There  is  a 
growing  consciousness  of  the  inadequacy  and  incongruity 
of  what  may  be  called  physical  anthropomorphism,  which 
culminates  in  the  post-exilic  doctrine  of  the  divine  trans- 
cendence, with  its  complementary  idea  of  angelic  mediation 
between  God  and  man.  But  to  the  modem  mind  there 
is  a  deeper  difficulty,  a  difficulty  often  felt  in  regard  to 
psychical,  as  keenly  as  in  regard  to  physical,  anthropo- 
morphism. Personality  has  been  held  to  mean  limita- 
tion, and  limitation  to  involve  such  a  doctrine  of  God  as 
makes  Him  only  a  greater  man,  and  really  puts  Him 
outside  human  life.  Obviously,  this  is  no  place  to  discuss 
the  purely  philosophic  question  whether  personaHty 
in  God  implies  limitation  inconsistent  with  His  deity. 
But  several  truths  should  be  remembered,  lest  the  term 
'  anthropomorphism '  raise  a  quite  unwarranted  pre- 
judice against  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  God.  In  the 
1  Tacitus,  Hist.,  v.  9 ;  Jos.,  Antiquities,  xiv.  4.  4. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  65 

first  place  the  question  is  really  one  of  degree  ;  we  cannot 
think  or  speak  of  God  at  all,  unless  in  the  language 
of  our  human  experience.  To  dismiss  all  anthropo- 
morphism is  to  dismiss  all  possibiHty  of  the  knowledge  of 
God.  In  the  second  place,  however  difficult  it  may  be 
to  frame  a  doctrine  of  divine  personahty  that  shall  be 
wholly  consistent,  we  are  using,  in  *  personahty ',  the 
highest  category  of  our  experience  to  interpret  our  highest 
faith.  The  philosophical  problem  was  not  present  to  the 
minds  of  Bibhcal  writers,  but  there  is  a  solution  implicit 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  more  clearly  articulated  in 
the  New — the  idea  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  which  hnks 
Him  in  spiritual  kinship  to  men,  and  makes  it  possible 
for  them  to  be  '  partakers  of  the  divine  nature '.  Finally, 
if  anthropomorphism  be  not  ruled  out  of  court  altogether, 
it  may  be  claimed  that  the  form  of  it  which  the  Old 
Testament  offers  is  on  the  whole  noble  and  exalted.  Its 
phraseology  still  dominates  our  devotional  vocabulary. 
The  highest  idea  of  God  is  still,  hke  Yahweh  Himself, 
enthroned  on  the  praises  of  Israel.  Philosophical  theism 
has  not  always  recognised  its  debt  to  the  Hebrew  reUgion 
for  the  deepest  realisation  of  divine  personahty. 


3.  The  Moral  Character  of  Yahweh 

The  central  place  of  the  eighth- century  prophets  in  the 
interpretation  of  the  character  of  God  must  not  be  allowed  to 
obscure  the  truth  that  they  are  themselves  the  result  of  a 
long  development.  The  relation  between  Israel  and  Yahweh 
did  not  begin  to  be  moral  in  the  eighth  century ;  it  began  to 
be  moral  when  it  began  to  exist.  The  great  fact  for  the 
future  was  not  the  precise  scope  of  the  original  idea  of 
Yahweh,  but  the  recognition  that  Israel  had  to  do  with 
a  powerful  person,  who  was  morally  interested  in  its  welfare. 
The  relation  between  Yahweh  and  Israel  was  hke  a  friend- 

E 


66       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

ship  between  two  men,  beginning  in  some  act  of  generous 
help  rendered  by  the  stronger  to  the  weaker,  behind  which 
act  the  larger  heart  and  mind  are  gradually  discerned. 
Such  a  relationship  could  not  fail  to  grow  in  moral  signi- 
ficance with  the  moral  growth  of  the  nation  itseK.  The 
hterature  and  history  of  what  is  called  the  '  pre-prophetic  ' 
period  sufficiently  reveal  the  manner  of  this.  The  prophet 
Nathan,  speaking  in  the  name  of  Yahweh,  boldly  rebukes 
David  for  a  moral  fault.^  The  prophet  Ehjah,  also  speak- 
ing in  the  name  of  Yahweh,  is  not  less  severe  concerning 
the  appropriation  of  Naboth's  vineyard  than  concerning 
the  favour  shown  to  a  rival  rehgion.^  The  impression 
we  gain  of  Yahweh's  moral  character  as  conceived  by 
these  two  prophets  is  confirmed  by  the  contemporary 
legal  and  narrative  Uterature.  It  is  true  that  the  '  older 
Decalogue ',  as  it  is  called,  the  series  of  ten  brief  rules  for 
rehgion  which  may  be  extracted  from  Exodus  xxxiv., 
is  concerned  with  ritual,  not  with  morality,  and  that  the 
*  younger  Decalogue ',  our  familiar  '  ten  commandments ', 
is  to  be  regarded  rather  as  a  compendium  of  eighth-century 
prophetical  teaching  than  as  an  anticipation  of  it.  But 
the  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Ex.  xx.  22-xxiii.  19),  which 
may  fairly  be  placed  under  the  early  monarchy,  is  far 
from  being  simply  a  ritualistic  code  of  laws.  It  is  indeed 
surprising  to  find  how  many  of  the  moral  demands  of  the 
great  prophets  are  here,  in  principle,  already  required  by 
Yahweh  from  Israel :  the  generous  treatment  of  the  slave, 
the  '  stranger ',  the  widow  and  orphan,  the  debtor  and  the 
poor ;  impartial  and  incorruptible  equity  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice ;  proper  regard  for  parents  ;  even  the 
duty  of  driving  back  an  enemy's  stray  cattle.  Clearly 
the  God  who  requires  such  conduct  from  His  people  is 
already  possessed  in  their  eyes  of  a  pronounced  moral 
character.  The  social  fife  of  a  settled  and  agricultural 
people   (for   whom  alone  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  is 

1  2  Sam.  lii.  If.  2  1  Kings  xxi.  17  f. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  67 

suitable)  has  produced  a  remarkable  growth  in  the  idea 
of  Yahweh  within  little  more  than  a  couple  of  centuries  of 
the  invasion  of  Palestine.  Nathan's  condemnation  of 
David  may  well  accompany  the  Book  of  the  Covenant 
as  a  more  or  less  contemporary  footnote  to  it,  showing 
morality  and  theology  together  in  the  making.  The 
two  '  prophetic '  narratives  of  the  pre-Mosaic  period, 
known  as  J  and  E,  to  which  most  of  the  Hght  and  colour 
of  the  earHer  pages  of  the  Bible  are  due,  similarly  show  a 
moral  conception  of  Yahweh  that  effectually  Unks  the 
period  of  David  with  the  eighth  century.  The  patriarchal 
stories  do  not  only  reveal  man  and  God  as  so  intimately 
related  that  they  almost  walk  the  earth  together ;  they 
just  as  strikingly  declare  the  moral  conditions  of  that 
fellowship,  and  none  the  less  because  the  moraHty  is  not 
always  Christian.^ 

The  advancing  moraUsation  of  the  idea  of  God  is,  how- 
ever, chiefly  brought  home  to  us  in  the  '  writing  '  prophets 
of  the  eighth  century,  especially  Amos,  Hosea,  and  Isaiah. 
These  three  prophets  are  all  concerned  with  the  moral 
relation  existing  between  Yahweh  and  Israel,  but  each 
of  them  emphasises  a  different  aspect  of  that  relation, 
and  consequently  presents  a  characteristic  idea  of  God. 
The  thought  of  Amos  centres  in  the  absolute  justice  of 
the  divine  sovereignty.  Yahweh,  the  God  of  Israel,  is  a 
great  ruler,  governing  beyond  as  well  as  within  Israel  on 
moral  principles  (i.,  ii.).  The  divine  election  of  Israel 
was  a  purposive  moral  act,  always  subject  to  moral  criti- 
cism and  control :  '  You  only  have  I  known  of  all  the 
famiHes  of  the  earth,  therefore  I  will  visit  upon  you  all 
your  iniquities '.-  These  iniquities  are  chiefly  social 
injustice,  e.(j.  the  oppression  of  the  poor  through  exaction 
and  bribery,^  together  with  commercial  dishonesty  *  with 

1  E.g.,  the  support  given  by  Yahweh  to  Abraham  in  bis  deception  of 
Pharaoh. 

2  iii.  2.  8  ii.  6,  7 ;  v.  11,  12.  *  viii.  4-6. 


68       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

a  view  to  luxurious  and  idle  self-indulgence.^  Whilst 
these  go  on,  elaborate  acts  of  worship  at  the  sanctuaries 
are  a  mockery  to  Yahweh ;  ^  the  only  true  offering  to 
a  moral  ruler  is  morahty.^  Just  as  Yahweh  punishes  the 
iniquities  of  other  nations  on  moral  grounds,  so  will  He 
punish  those  of  Israel ;  the  special  relation  that  exists 
between  the  nation  and  Himself  carries  with  it  a  higher 
moral  demand,  and  severer  penalties.  The  idea  of  God 
that  dominates  the  prophet's  mind  is  clear  and  unmistak- 
able. Yahweh  is  righteous,  and  has  both  will  and  power 
to  administer  the  government  of  the  world  by  the  standard 
of  His  own  character.  The  moral  revulsion  of  Amos  from 
the  immoral  religion  and  the  religious  immoraUty  of  the 
Northern  Kingdom  became  his  divine  call  to  prophesy. 
His  contribution  to  the  idea  of  God  is  essentially  the  faith 
that  the  divine  personaHty  is  not  less  moral  than  the 
human  heart  of  the  prophet. 

The  emphasis  of  Amos  necessarily  neglects  the  other 
side  of  the  relation  between  Yahweh  and  Israel,  the  bond 
of  '  loving-kindness '  which  unites  God  to  His  chosen 
people.  This  was  brought  out  by  Hosea,  writing  some 
fifteen  years  later  than  Amos.  Hosea  stands  within  the 
Northern  Kingdom,  not  without  it,  Hke  Amos  ;  personal 
experience  of  the  faithlessness  of  a  still  loved  wife  has 
opened  his  eyes  to  the  deeper  meaning  of  the  bond  between 
Yahweh  and  Israel.  Accordingly,  he  came  to  conceive 
Yahweh  not  simply  or  chiefly  as  a  moral  ruler,  but  as  a 
Father  and  a  Husband,*  and  his  emphasis  falls  on  the 
religious,  as  much  as  on  the  social,  faults  of  Israel.  In 
other  words,  his  idea  of  God  is  interpreted  through  the 
deepest  relationships  of  human  Ufe,  those  of  the  family, 
and  it  is  the  wounded,  j^et  surviving,  love  of  God  for  Israel 
which  is  central  in  his  thought,  as  the  offended  righteous- 
ness of  God  was  central  in  the  thought  of  Amos.     The 

1  iii.  10,  12,  15  :  iv.  1 ;  v.  11  ;  vi.  if.  a  iv  4  5 

'  ^-  21-ii5.  4  ji;  I'f.  ;  ii.  16. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  69 

deepest  moral  conceptions  of  God  which  the  Old  Testa- 
ment contains  are  implied  in  the  two  figures  of  marriage 
and  parentage  which  Hosea  employs.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  passionate  love  of  Yahweh  for  His  bride  seeks  for  her 
the  truest  Ufe  :  '  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  righteous- 
ness, and  in  judgment,  and  in  loving-kindness,  and  in 
mercies.  I  will  even  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness, 
and  thou  shalt  know  Yahweh '  ;  on  the  other,  the  tender 
patience  of  the  father  is  seen  in  Yahweh's  readiness  to  take 
into  His  arms  the  stumbling  child,  learning  to  walk,  and 
to  carry  it  when  it  is  weary. ^  Israel  is  perishing  because 
it  does  not  know  Yahweh,  ^  its  Husband  and  its  Father. 

These  two  great  ideas  of  God,  as  righteous,  and  as  loving, 
spring  from  the  fundamental  thought  of  the  personal 
relation  which  unites  Him  to  His  people,  and  are  both 
needed  to  reveal  its  content.  But  when  these  two  are 
recognised,  all  other  moral  '  attributes '  are  implicitly 
given.  Consequently,  we  do  not  find  that  the  third  great 
prophet  of  this  century  is  able  to  add  any  further  attribute 
which  we  can  place  beside  the  fundamental  quahties  of 
love  and  righteousness.  What  Isaiah  does  is,  however, 
to  lift  the  idea  of  the  righteous  and  loving  God  of  Isiael 
to  a  new  majesty  of  conception  by  his  repeated  emphasis 
on  the  divine  holiness.  The  familiar  details  of  the  vision 
in  the  Temple  which  constituted  the  prophet's  call  suffi- 
ciently illustrate  this,  as  does  his  favourite  title  for  Yahweh 
— the  '  Holy  One  of  Israel '.  We  must  not  make  '  holy  ' 
here  a  mere  synon3rm  of  moral  righteousness,  or  we  lose 
the  force  of  Isaiah's  conception  of  God.  The  earher 
idea  of  '  hoHness  '  * — which,  etymologically,  may  meai^ 
'  separation ' — is  that  of  inaccessibihty,  perilous  and 
unknown  power,  involving  mysterious  taboos,  and  super- 
stitious fears.  The  idea  is  common  to  many  peoples  in 
their  primitive  stage,  and  has  no  essential  connection 
with  the  moral  development  of  the  idea  of  God.  But 
1  ii.  19,  20  ;  xi.  1-4.  a  ir.  6.  »  See  chap,  vi.,  pp.  130  f. 


70       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

when  the  moral  ideas  of  divine  righteousness  and  love 
were  firmly  grasped,  as  they  were  by  Amos  and  Hosea, 
the  recognition  of  the  transcendent  majesty  of  God  by 
Isaiah  gave  them  a  wider  range  and  fuller  meaning.  It 
reminded  men  that  the  PersonaUty  with  which  man  had 
to  do  was  divine,  not  human.  Men  were  men,  not  gods, 
as  the  boasted  cavalry  of  Egypt  were  flesh,  not  spirit.* 
The  idea  of  God  thus  reached  in  the  eighth  century 
became  the  permanent  and  underlying  idea  of  the  highest 
religion  of  Israel.  The  transcendent  holiness  of  God  was 
the  majesty  of  a  righteous  and  loving  Person.  In  that 
unity,  all  the  deeper  religious  ideas  of  Israel  find  their 
source.  We  must  not  forget  that  they  are  a  unity.  '  The 
antithesis  which  in  dogmatics  we  are  famihar  with  is  a 
righteous  or  just  God  and  yet  a  Saviour.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment puts  it  differently, — a  righteous  God  and  therefore 
a  Saviour.  ...  To  say  that  Jehovah  is  a  transcendent 
moral  person  is  to  express  the  whole  doctrine  of  God  '.^ 

4.  The  Divine  Purpose  in  Creation  and  Providence 

At  the  outset  of  this  survey  of  the  Old  Testament  idea 
of  God,  it  was  said  that  the  proper  starting-point  was 
Israel's  experience  of  the  historical  relation  in  which  it 
stood  to  Yahweh.  This  experience  has  shown  (1)  the 
gradual  expansion  in  the  idea  of  Yahweh's  sovereignty 
from  the  tribal  war-god  to  the  one  Ruler  of  the  whole  world ; 
(2)  the  recognition  of  a  very  distinct  personahty,  conceived 
along  the  lines  of  human  nature,  at  the  centre  of  this 
sovereignty;  (3)  faith  in  the  moral  character  of  this 
personahty.  There  remains  to  be  considered  the  prac- 
tical outcome  of  the  relation  of  this  moral  personality 
to  Nature  and  man.  What  was  His  purpose  in  creation  ? 
what  aims  were  conceived  to  control  His  attitude  and 
general  procedure  throughout  the  history  of  Israel  ? 

1  Is.  xxxi.  3  ;  cf.  Job  x.  4. 

«  Davidson,  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  144,  161. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  71 

It  is  highly  significant  for  the  answers  to  these  questions 
that  the  movement  of  Israel's  thought  is  from  the  grace 
of  God  experienced  in  history  to  the  interpretation  of 
Nature,  and  not  vice  versa.  The  advance  of  Hebrew  religion 
from  the  spiritual  to  the  natural  realm  ^  stands  in  direct  con- 
trast with  the  advance  of  Greek  thought  from  the  natural  to 
the  spiritual.-  The  extension  of  Yahweh's  power  into  the 
realm  of  Nature  was  a  consequence  of  the  worth  and  vigour 
of  the  idea  of  Yahweh  as  moral  personality.  In  the  original 
form  of  that  idea,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  it,  Yahweh's 
function  as  the  tribal  war-god  is  that  of  one  power  among 
many  others.  He  operates  from  within  Nature,  not  from 
a  transcendent  position  above  it.  Yet  from  the  beginning, 
Yahweh  is  not  of  Nature.  He  belongs  to  the  realm  of 
personal  life.  He  is  not  a  mere  expression  of  natural 
phenomena,  like  the  Baalim,  and  He  cannot  be  naturaUs- 
tically  explained.  But  His  power  is  felt  to  be  operative 
in  one  new  sphere  after  another,  in  the  early  and  latter 
rains  of  the  cornfield,  as  well  as  in  the  storm  that  hurled 
the  swollen  Kishon  upon  the  Canaanites,  until  all  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  natural  world  are  eventually  subordinated 
to  Him.  Thus  Nature  gained  its  unity  by  the  relation 
of  its  various  elements  to  Yahweh. ^  It  became,  in  fact, 
one  vast  illustration  of  His  power  and  proof  of  His  majestic 
wisdom,  just  as  it  comes  at  length  to  be  portrayed  in  the 
nature-poetry  of  the  Book  of  Job,  the  worship  of  the 
Psalter,  or  the  philosophy  of  the  Wisdom  hterature.* 

1  This  is  the  real  significance  of  the  frequent  remark  that  the  interest  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  not  'scientific'.  But  it  must  also  be  remembered  that 
the  Old  Testament  is  written  according  to  the  '  science '  of  its  times  and 
horizon,  which  admits  of  no  reconciliation  with  modern  science. 

2  This  remains  true  of  Greek  philosophy  as  a  whole,  even  if  the 
cosmologies  are  shown  to  be  related  to  earlier  mythological  ideas.  (See 
Cornford,  From  Religion  to  Philosophy. ) 

3  Cf.  Koeberle,  Natur  und  Geist,  p.  233. 

4  Job  xxxviii.-xli.  ;  P.ss.  xix.,  civ.  ;  Prov.  viii.  22-31  ;  Job  xxviii.  So, 
often,  in  Deutero-Isaiah  {e.g.  xl.  28,  xliv.  24).  The  doctrine  of  divine 
creation  thus  becomes  the  great  confirmation  of  the  sufficiency  of  Yahweh  to 
carry  through  His  purposes. 


72       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

But,  although  there  is  appeal  to  the  wonder  and  majesty 
of  Nature  as  God's  work,  in  order  to  humble  man,  and 
although  the  glory  of  God  in  the  natural  world  and  His 
joy  in  it  owe  nothing  to  man,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  the  Old  Testament  regards  Nature,  in  the  last  resort, 
simply  as  the  arena  for  the  moral  issues  of  human  hfe. 
This  is  apparent  in  the  stories  of  creation,  both  the 
earher  and  the  later.  In  the  earUer  (Gen.  ii.  4  f.),  the 
interest  is  focused  on  the  fateful  exercise  of  freedom  on 
man's  part,  through  which  are  changed  even  the  natural 
phenomena  of  human  life  and  work^  {e.g.  child-bearing 
and  the  tiUing  of  the  ground).  In  the  later  (Gen.  i.), 
though  the  transcendent  God  now  stands  outside  of  and 
above  Nature,  as  its  absolute  disposer,  His  work  still  cul- 
minates in  the  creation  of  man,  made  in  His  image,  i.e.  set 
in  a  similar  relation  of  authority  in  regard  to  all  other 
creatures.  This  proud  place  of  man  is  explicitly  stated 
in  the  well-known  words  of  the  eighth  Psalm,  which  marvel 
at  the  glory  and  honour  with  which  God  has  crowned  man. 
Amid  the  glories  of  the  earth  by  day,^  or  beneath  the 
wonder  of  the  stars  by  night,^  man  plays  his  part,  and  that 
no  small  one,  in  the  purposes  of  Yahweh.  The  omnipo- 
tence of  Yahweh,  displayed  in  the  desert  or  the  dungeon, 
on  the  bed  of  sickness  or  the  storm-tossed  ship,*  is  con- 
centrated on  man's  reUgious  development.  The  omni- 
science of  Yahweh  penetrates  to  the  very  secrets  of  the 
heart  of  the  being  so  marvellously  fashioned  in  the  womb 
by  His  hand.5  The  unchanging  purpose  of  Yahweh  is 
accompUshed  in  and  through  man,  as  surely  as  the  purpose 
of  the  potter  on  the  revolving  clay.®  This  complete 
control  of  human  life  is  the  more  easily  accepted  by 
Hebrew  thought,  because  of  the  Hebrew  conception  of 
Nature.     In  the  conservation  or  maintenance  of  Nature, 

1  Contrast  the  change  of  nature  for  the  better,  in  sympathy  with  human 
fortunes,  as  in  Is.  xxxv.,  and  in  Ezek.  xlvii. 

2  Ps.  civ.  23.  3  Ps.  viii.  3  f.  4  Ps.  cviL 
«  Ps.  cixxix.                     8  Jer.  xviii.  6. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  73 

as  in  its  transformation  in  the  Messianic  age,  Yahweh's 
relation  to  it  is  conceived  to  be  direct  and  immediate. 
The  chain  of  what  we  should  call  natural  causation  is 
indeed  recognised.  For  example,  in  the  promise  of  agri- 
cultural prosperity  to  Israel,  the  corn  and  wine  and  oil 
are  traced  to  the  fertihty  of  the  earth,  and  this,  again,  to 
the  rain  from  heaven.  But  these  Hnks  are  not  second 
causes  in  our  sense  of  the  term  ;  at  the  end  of  the  series, 
as  always  in  Hebrew  thought,  stands  Yahweh,  setting 
it  in  motion.^  Palestine  is  indeed  naively  contrasted  with 
Egypt,  as  being  superior  because  it  '  drinketh  water  of 
the  rain  of  heaven',  and  not  from  the  artificial  irrigation 
of  the  land  of  the  Nile  ;  ^  i.e.  in  the  former  land  the  per- 
sonal attention  of  Yahweh  is  more  manifest.  Thus,  in 
the  realm  of  Nature,  '  everything  is  supernatural,  that  is, 
direct  divine  operation  '.^  The  supreme  purpose  of 
Yahweh,  which  has  controlled  His  activity  in  the  creation 
and  conservation  of  Nature,  and  in  the  direction  of  human 
history,  is  made  articulate  again  and  again  in  the  rebukes 
and  appeals  of  the  prophets.  '  The  ox  knoweth  his  owner, 
and  the  ass  his  master's  crib  :  but  Israel  doth  not  know, 
my  people  doth  not  consider  '.*  Yahweh's  purpose  is 
that  man  should  learn  to  say  '  I  delight  to  do  Thy  will, 
O  my  God  '.^  This  will  of  God,  springing  as  it  does  from 
His  moral  character,  is  itself  moral.  He  seeks  a  social 
end,  the  fellowship  of  man  with  Him  through  moral 
obedience.  This  is  salvation  in  the  deeper  and  more 
spiritual  sense  of  the  Old  Testament.  True,  it  is  crossed 
by  the  consciousness  of  Israel's  central  place  in  the  grace 

1  Hos.  ii.  21,  22. 

2  Deut.  xi.  10-12.  A  'rain  theology'  was  *as  important  for  Israel  as  the 
Homousia  for  Christian  councils'  (iJu'hm,  Jeremia,  p.  131). 

3  Davidson,  D.  B.,  ii.  p.  198.  'Two beliefs  characterise  the  Hebrew  mind 
from  the  beginning :  first,  the  strong  belief  in  causation— every  change  on 
the  face  of  nature,  or  in  the  life  of  men  or  nations,  must  be  due  to  a  cause  ; 
and,  secondly,  the  only  conceivable  causality  is  a  personal  agent'  {I.e.).  A 
good  example  is  the  annual  cycle  of  the  seasons  (Gen.  viii.  22). 

*  Is.  i.  3.  6  Ps.  xl.  8. 


74       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

and  purpose  of  God,  with  the  result  that  the  universalism 
implicit  in  the  moral  purpose  is  variously  limited  by  the 
nationalism.  But  even  in  the  religion  of  the  Law,  when 
the  nationalism  has  assumed  its  most  stringent  aspect, 
obedience  to  the  revealed  will  of  Yahweh  is  recognised 
as  the  supreme  end  of  man,  and  the  supreme  glory  of 
God.  The  attitude  of  Jesus  to  the  will  of  God,  and  His 
emphasis  on  the  absolute  worth  of  obedience  as  the  supreme 
'  value  '  of  human  Ufe,  are  the  best  illustration  of  what  the 
Old  Testament  indicates  as  the  purpose  of  Yahweh  in 
creation  and  Providence.  Thus,  as  an  Old  Testament 
prophet  might  have  said,  is  the  glory  of  Yahweh' s  self- 
manifestation  in  human  history  ^  to  find  its  complement 
in  the  voluntary  surrender  of  human  life  to  His  holy  will. 
As  the  difficult  problems  of  human  character  and  destiny 
were  realised  by  Israel's  finest  minds,  the  emphasis  was 
thrown  more  and  more  on  the  divine  resources,  the  super- 
natural power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  bring  fife  out  of  a 
dead  nation,^  the  willingness  of  Yahweh  to  make  a  new 
covenant,  and  so  write  it  on  the  hearts  of  men  that  they 
can  no  more  forget  or  refuse  its  claims.^  Here,  as  so 
often  in  the  history  of  the  idea  we  have  reviewed,  the 
new  demand  arouses  the  new  faith  that  maketh  not 
ashamed.  The  resources  of  Yahweh  are  called  into  action 
like  the  hidden  reserves  of  a  battlefield,  but  they  are 
never  exhausted. 

The  Old  Testament  idea  of  God  satisfies  the  deepest 
demands  of  religion  by  bringing  God  and  man  face  to  face 
in  a  moral  relation.  Calvin  begins  the  Institutes  with 
the  characteristic  remark  that  '  Almost  the  whole  sum 
of  our  wisdom,  which  ought  to  be  judged  really  true  and 
sohd  wisdom,  consists  of  two  elements,  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  ourselves '.  Newman's  conversion,  under 
Calvinistic  influences,   in  his  fifteenth  year,   reproduced 

1  Num.  xiv.  21,  22 ;  cf.  Is.  vi,  3. 

2  Ezek.  xxivii.  s  jer.  xxxi.  31  f. 


III.]  THE  IDEA  OF  GOD  75 

the  same  conviction,  'making  me',  he  says  'rest  in  the 
thought  of  two  and  two  only  absolute  and  luminously 
self-evident  beings,  myself  and  my  Creator '.^  In  these 
two  widely  differing  men,  there  is  the  same  ultimate  debt 
to  the  reHgion  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  brings  God 
so  near  to  human  hfe,  and  makes  Him  more  real  than 
one's  neighbour.  The  contrast  of  this  idea  of  God  with 
all  forms  of  pantheism  is  obvious.  Yahweh,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  not  derived  from  Nature,  or  hnked  to  Nature. 
His  affinities  are  with  human  personaHty.  He  stands 
above  the  chaos  (apparently  conceived  already  to  exist  ^) 
from  which  He  fashions  His  world.  Problems  enough 
for  philosophical  theism  remain  in  such  an  idea  of  God, 
but  at  least  it  makes  impossible  that  lower  pantheism, 
or  rather  materiahsm,  which  would  explain  the  highest 
things  from  the  lowest.  The  higher  pantheism  of  the 
Jew,  Spinoza,  was  impossible  to  his  ancient  kinsmen, 
through  their  strong  hold  on  the  reality  of  human 
freedom  and  moral  experience,  even  had  such  a  doctrine 
of  divine  immanence  been  historically  conceivable  in 
Israel.  The  Old  Testament  idea  of  God,  moreover, 
though  it  so  clearly  separates  Yahweh  from  the  world 
He  created  and  rules,  gives  no  real  support  to  quasi-dual- 
istic  ideas  of  a  power  working  against  difficulties,  to  some- 
what doubtful  ends, — ideas  which  have  a  certain  popularity 
at  the  present  time,  as  they  had  when  Gnosticism  flourished. 
Whatever  may  be  true  of  the  earher  idea  of  Yahweh,  the 
monotheistic  doctrine  of  the  prophets  places  all  things 
in  His  hands.  His  final  triumph  is  secure.  The  faith 
of  Israel  in  its  own  future  shows  absolute  confidence 
that  the  ultimate  victory  is  in  the  hands  of  its  God. 
Some  of  the  hmitations  in  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  God 
are  apparent  enough,  but  they  are  Hmitations  of  form, 
not  of  ultimate  principle.     They  may  be  compared  with 

1  Apologia,  p.  4 ;  cf.  Parochial  and  Plain  Sermons,  i.  p.  20. 

2  Cf.  Skiuner,  Genesis,  p.  16. 


7C       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

those  which  attach  to  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  As 
the  Christian  may  see  the  manifestation  of  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God  within  those  Hmitations,  so  may  be  seen  the 
manifestation  of  the  Eternal  God  Himself  through  the 
limitations  of  '  Yahweh  of  Israel  '.^ 

1  Cf.  the  fine  passage  in  Ruskin's  Frondes  Agrestes  (p.  58),  -which  draws  a 
parallel  between  the  revelation  of  the  Son,  through  '  the  veil  of  our  human 
ficsh ',  with  that  of  the  Father,  through  '  the  veil  of  our  human  thoughts '. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MA.N  77 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   IDEA   OF   MAN 

Discoveries  that  deserve  to  be  called  great  are  usually 
made  in  the  realm  of  common  things,  for  their  greatness 
hes  in  the  wide  range  of  their  application.  The  inven- 
tion of  printing  from  movable  types,  the  use  of  the  expan- 
sive force  of  steam,  the  principle  of  gravitation,  owe  their 
epoch-making  importance  to  the  uncounted  multitude  of 
their  possible  appHcations.  It  is  not  otherwise  with  the 
most  far-reaching  discovery  ever  made  in  the  realm  of 
rehgion — the  discover}^  we  owe  to  the  prophets  of  Israel 
that  the  supreme  worth  of  hfe  is  its  morahty.^  They 
pointed  to  something  that  claimed  its  place  in  every  hfe, 
something  that  found  embodiment  in  the  common  round 
and  daily  task  and  instinctive  personal  relationships  of 
men,  and  said  in  effect,  '  This  is  man's  hfe  at  its  highest, 
and  God  demands  the  highest  from  man '.  That  simple 
truth  was  enough  eventually  to  transform  a  Semitic  cult 
into  a  universal  rehgion.  They  brought  their  new  sense 
of  values  into  relation  with  the  highest  interpretative 
idea  they  knew — the  idea  of  Yahweh  as  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  that  idea  was  slowly  expanded  from  the  war-cry  of 
mihtant  tribes  to  a  faith  that  does  not  dishonour  the  God 
and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  now  to 
see  how  this  emphasis  on  moral  experience  could  give  to 
man  himseK  a  new  place  and  dignity,  transforming  the 

1  This  culminates  in  the  eighth  century,  but,  as  already  stated,  the  moral 
emphasis  of  the  prophetic  spirit  may  be  traced  back  to  a  much  earlier  time, 
if  not  to  Moses  himself  (see  chap.  ii.  §  2). 


78       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

crude  material  of  Semitic  animism  until  it  expressed  an 
idea  of  human  personality  second  only  in  its  lofty  claims 
to  that  of  the  Christian  faith  for  which  it  prepared. 

The  course  of  the  development  of  the  idea  of  man  is 
less  obvious  and  expHcit  than  that  of  the  idea  of  God, 
just  because  the  literature  of  Israel  is  almost  wholly 
rehgious.  In  the  realm  of  rehgion,  most  of  all  in  that  of 
Israel's  rehgion,  the  stress  falls  on  God,  not  on  man. 
Morahty  is  central,  but  not  morality  for  its  own  sake ; 
morahty  is  what  Yahweh  wants  from  man,  who  exists 
to  obey  Him.  Consequently  the  influence  of  the  moral 
emphasis  on  the  idea  of  man  is  indirect,  rather  than  direct. 
The  majesty  and  glory  of  morality  are,  as  it  were,  first 
seen  in  the  face  of  God,  before  they  are  flung  back  in  light 
on  the  nature  of  man.  Israel  had  no  Socrates  to  turn 
men's  thoughts  from  the  outer  world  to  the  inner,  and  to 
compel  them  to  know  themselves.  But  Israel  had  an 
Isaiah  to  see  the  holy  God  in  His  temple,  and  seeing  Him, 
to  cry,  '  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips  '.  In  technical  terms, 
the  rehgion  of  Israel  is  theocentric,  not  anthropocentric. 
One  result  of  this  is  that  there  is  relatively  a  much  larger 
survival  of  primitive  ideas  about  man  than  about  God  in 
the  Old  Testament.  In  the  case  of  the  doctrine  of  God 
we  are  made  aware  of  a  distinct  cleavage  between  the  new 
and  the  old,  a  conscious  antithesis  between  the  Baahsm 
of  Canaan  and  the  Yahwism  of  Israel's  prophets.  The 
wTiters  of  the  Old  Testament  hardly  permit  us  to  hear  of 
the  defeated  foe,  save  as  an  object  of  abhorrence  and  a 
stone  of  stumbhng.i  But  there  was  no  such  exphcit  opposi- 
tion between  the  old  and  new  ideas  of  human  nature. 
The  new  idea  of  man  which  sprang  from  the  rehgious 
reahsation  of  the  worth  of  his  morahty  was  as  the  leaven 
hid  in  the  '  three  measures  of  meal ',  till  it  was  all  leavened. 

\  E.g.,  the  very  name  '  Baal '  is  altered  into  *  Bosheth ',  meaning  '  shame', 
as  in  Jer.  iii.  24,  and  in  certain  proper  names  (Ishbosheth,  Jerubosheth)  in 
which  '  Baal '  originally  stood  (1  Chron.  yiii.  33  ;  Jud.  vi.  32). 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  79 

There  were,  in  fact,  three  features  of  Semitic  animism 
to  be  so  leavened.  They  are  more  or  less  common  to  all 
primitive  culture — the  ideas  of  the  breath-soul  (and  blood- 
soul),  of  the  psychical  function  of  physical  organs,  of  the 
ascription  of  all  that  is  abnormal  in  conduct  and  character 
to  the  action  of  invasive  spirits.  These  were  the  chief 
origins  of  the  psychology  involved  in  the  common  speech 
and  thought  of  the  Hebrews.  This  the  prophet  of 
Yahweh  transformed,  even  whilst  he  shared  in  it.  Yahweh, 
he  taught,  framed  those  organs,  and  animated  them  with 
hving  breath  ;  Yahweh  claimed  the  blood  of  the  sacri- 
fices ;  Yahweh  sent  His  Spirit  into  man.  It  was  the 
exception,  rather  than  the  rule,  for  the  prophetic  rehgion 
to  challenge  such  popular  conceptions ;  it  was  done  only 
when,  as  by  some  of  the  death  customs,  the  sole  supremacy 
of  Yahweh  seemed  to  be  imperilled.  For  the  most  part, 
the  primitive  ideas  about  human  nature  survived,  though 
the  primitive  high  places  of  the  gods  perished.  They  sur- 
vived to  make  their  own  contribution  to  rehgious  experi- 
ence. Crude  as  some  of  them  were,  they  were  capable 
of  being  shaped  into  vivid  and  forcible  expressions  of 
fundamental  truths,  and  we  owe  to  them  much  in  the 
Scriptural  vocabulary  of  rehgion.  There  is  no  more 
impressive  illustration  of  this  transformation  than  the 
doctrine  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  ultimately  rooted 
in  Semitic  demonology.  We  shall  trace  this  assimila- 
tion and  transformation  in  regard  to  (1)  the  psychology 
of  the  Hebrews;  (2)  the  dependence  of  man  on  God; 
(3)  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  society ;  (4)  the 
future  life. 

1.  The  Psychology  of  the  Hebrews 

There  is  a  logic  in  primitive  thought  which  is  often 
obscured  to  modern  eyes  because  it  works  from  premises 
so  dififerent  from  our  own.  We  are  apt  to  dismiss  as 
fanciful   metaphor   much   that   was   simple   realism ;    in 


80       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

fact,  the  science  of  the  ancient  world  has  often  become 
the  poetry  of  the  modem.  This  is  evident  in  regard  to 
those  speculations  about  human  nature  which  the  Hebrews, 
or  their  ancestors,  shared  with  primitive  peoples  in  general. 
The  obvious  explanation  of  the  difference  between  a  dead 
and  a  living  man  was  the  respective  absence  or  presence 
of  breath,  and  in  consequence  there  is  no  more  common 
theory  of  the  soul  than  that  which  identifies  it  with  the 
breath.  To  the  Hebrew,  the  soul  is  not  an  esoteric  and 
mystical  abstraction  ;  it  is  the  breath,  and  the  breath 
which  is  the  principle  of  Ufe  naturally  comes  to  be  regarded 
as  the  centre  of  the  consciousness  of  life,  and  of  all  its 
physical  or  psychical  phenomena.  The  Hebrew  word  for 
this  breath-soul  is  nephesh,  and  the  best  translation  of 
it  is  often  simply  '  life '.  When  the  prophet  EHjah  has 
prayed  for  the  restoration  to  hfe  of  the  child  of  the  widow 
of  Zarephath,  '  the  child's  nephesh  returned  upon  his 
inward  parts,  and  he  Hved  '.^  The  idea  is  clearly  that 
of  the  breath  as  animating  the  physical  organs  of  the  body, 
almost  as  materiaUstically  conceived  as  when  we  think 
of  steam  setting  an  engine  in  motion.  Equally  obvious 
and  natural  is  the  extension  of  the  term  nephesh  to  cover 
the  inner  consciousness  of  Ufe.  The  early  '  Book  of  the 
Covenant '  says,  '  a  sojourner  thou  shalt  not  oppress,  for 
ye  know  the  nephesh  of  the  sojourner,  since  ye  were 
sojourners  in  the  land  of  Egypt  '.'^  The  usage  of  nephesh 
could  extend  to 

*  All  thoughts,  all  passions,  all  delights, 
Whatever  stirs  this  mortal  frame ', 

but,  in  practice,  for  reasons  to  be  given,  it  was  chiefly 
used  of  the  emotional  hfe,  and,  in  particular,  of  physical 
appetite,  or  psychical  desire.^  All  this  is  perfectly  straight- 
forward, and  raises  no  problems.  The  comphcations  that 
have  arisen  for  the  study  of  Hebrew  psychology  are  due 

1  1  Kings  xvii.  22.  2  Ex.  xxiii.  9.  »  1  Sam.  ii.  16 :  xx.  4. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  81 

to  a  feature  common  to  much  primitive  thought.    That 
thought  does  not  start  from  one  centre  only  in  its  explana- 
tion of  phenomena,  but  from  several  independent  ideas. 
These  distinct  explanations  eventually  converge  on  the 
fact  to  be  explained,  and  are  reconciled  by  some  form  of 
syncretism,  which  continues  to  puzzle  the  modem  investi- 
gator until  he  ceases  to  expect  a  systematic  arrangement, 
and  looks  simply  for  the  different  lines  of  approach.     The 
second  hne  of  approach  to  the  problem  of  hfe  adopted  by 
Hebrew  thought  is   also   shared  with  primitive  peoples 
in  general.     It  sets  out  from  the  different  organs  of  the 
body,  both  central   and  peripheral.     These  are   credited 
with  different  contributions  to  the  conscious  hfe,  because 
ancient  and  primitive  thought  has  not  learnt  to  distin- 
guish between  the  physical  and  the  psychical.     Thus  the 
Hebrews    spoke  of   the   (physical)   heart    as   the   actual 
centre  of  the  conscious  hfe  in  general,  and  of  both  its 
emotional  and  intellectual  aspects.     The  term  is  as  general 
in  its  original  scope  as  was  nephesh.     But,  as  a  result  of 
the  syncretism  of  these  two  parallel  ideas,  '  heart '  and 
nephesh  come   to  denote  predominantly  the  intellectual 
and  the  emotional  aspects  of  consciousness  respectively, 
without  complete  surrender  of  their  more  comprehensive 
usage.     This  is  the  explanation  of  such  words  as  those 
of  the  Deuteronomic  appeal :    '  Thou  shalt  love  Yahweh 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  nephesh,  and 
with  all  thy  might '  (vi.  5).     This  sentence  covers  the  con- 
scious hfe  of  the  whole  personahty,  in  both  its  thought 
and  its  feehng. 

There  is  also,  however,  in  the  Old  Testament,  a  third 
line  of  approach  to  the  mystery  of  human  personahty — 
viz.  that  afforded  by  the  term  ruach,  or  'spirit'.  This 
forms  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and  important  subjects 
of  Bibhcal  theology,  and  the  ideas  which  cluster  around 
it  are  the  most  characteristic  of  Old  Testament  ideas  in 
regard  to  human  nature.     It  is  often  said,  by  those  who 

F 


82       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [en. 

have  not  studied  the  history  of  the  usage  in  its  chrono- 
logical development,  that  ruach  is  simply  another  term 
for  the  breath-soul,  a  synon3rm  of  nephesh,  though  with  a 
higher  range  of  meaning.  To  say  this  is  to  neglect  the 
important  fact  that  ruach  is  not  used  of  the  breath-soul 
in  man,  or  with  psychical  predicates,  in  any  pre-exilic 
passage.  The  original  meaning  of  the  term,  a  meaning 
it  retains  throughout  all  periods  of  Hebrew  Uterature,  is 
'wind'.  From  that  usage  it  passed  over  to  denote  the 
mysterious  \\and-Hke  influences,  the  demonic  forces, 
which  were  supposed  to  account  for  what  is  abnormal 
and  strange  in  human  conduct.  We  have  to  remember 
that  primitive  thought,  to  a  degree  we  find  it  hard  to 
imagine,  supposes  man  to  be  constantly  accessible  to  such 
influences.  The  quarrel  that  arose  between  Abimelech 
and  the  men  of  Shechem  is  ascribed  to  an  evil  ruach  sent 
by  God  ;  the  madness  of  Saul  and  the  remarkable  strength 
of  Samson  are  similarly  explained. ^  But  that  which  was 
more  or  less  abnormal  before  the  Exile  comes  to  be  more 
or  less  normal  after  it ;  by  the  time  of  Ezekiel,  ruach  is 
used  of  the  breath-soul  in  man,  as  was  nephesh.  Yet  it 
always  retains — and  this  is  a  most  important  point  to 
notice — the  '  higher '  associations  of  its  origin.  It  stands 
for  those  more  exceptional  and  unusual  endowments  of 
human  nature  which  suggest  God  as  their  immediate 
source,  the  more  normal  nephesh  being  taken  for  granted. 
It  hnks  man  to  God,  as  though  it  were  a  door  continually 
open  to  His  approach.  The  function  which  Professor 
James  ^  ascribed  to  the  '  sub-consciousness '  was  fulfilled 
by  the  idea  of  ruach  to  the  spiritually-minded  IsraeUte. 
Through  his  own  ruach,  that  is,  through  his  conscious  hfe 
viewed  in  its  highest  possibiHties,  he  was  in  touch  with 
the  ruach  of  God,  the  source  of  man's  greatest  achieve- 
ments.   The  nature  of  man,  regarded  as  in  contrast  with 

1  Jud.  ix.  23  ;  1  Sam.  xviii.  10 ;  Jud.  xv.  14. 

2  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  512  f. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  83 

the  nature  of  God,  might  be  called  '  flesh',  as  the  divine 
nature  was  called  '  spirit ' ;  yet  man  could  pray,  '  with 
my  ruach  within  me,  I  seek  longingly  for  Thee  '.^ 

If  we  bring  together  these  three  chief  terms — nepheshy 
'heart',  and  ruach — in  the  working  syncretism  of  their 
ultimate  usage,  we  shall  see  that  there  is  before  us  a 
striking  theory  of  human  nature,  which  may  be  taken  as 
characteristic  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  idea  of  human 
nature  impHes  a  unity,  not  a  duaUsm.  There  is  no  con- 
trast between  the  body  and  the  soul,  such  as  the  terms 
instinctively  suggest  to  us.  The  shades  of  the  dead  in 
Sheol,  as  we  shall  see,  are  not  called  '  souls '  or  '  spirits ' 
in  the  Old  Testament ;  nor  does  the  Old  Testament  contain 
any  distinct  word  for  '  body ',  as  it  surely  would  have  done, 
had  this  idea  been  sharply  differentiated  from  that  of 
soul.  Man's  nature  is  a  product  of  the  two  factors 
— the  breath-soul  which  is  his  principle  of  hfe,  and 
the  complex  of  physical  organs  which  this  animates. 
Separate  them,  and  the  man  ceases  to  be,  in  any  real  sense 
of  personality ;  nothing  but  a  '  shade '  remains,  which 
is  neither  body  nor  soul.  If  this  seems  but  a  poor  idea 
of  human  nature,  we  must  set  over  against  it  the  great 
redeeming  feature,  that  there  is  an  aspect  of  this  nature 
which  relates  man  to  God,  and  makes  man  accessible  to 
God.  Man  had  only  to  find  along  this  fine  the  fulfilment 
of  the  deepest  moral  and  religious  demands  of  his  life, 
to  be  lifted  into  a  realm  where  personality  is  victorious 
over  death. 

2.  Man's  Dependence  on  God 

The  foundation  for  the  conception  of  human  nature  just 
outlined  was  already  in  existence  when  the  prophetic  theo- 
logy first  began  to  transform  the  rehgion  of  Israel.  The 
prophets  shared  in  the  psychology  of  their  time;  their 

1  Is.  xxvi.  9;  cf.  xxxi.  3. 


84       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

own  message,  as  will  be  seen  further  on,  in  large  measure 
owes  its  form  to  that  psychology.  But  the  old  anthro- 
pology, tacitly  accepted,  could  not  escape  gradual  trans- 
formation by  the  new  doctrine  of  God.  Human  nature 
gained  a  new  significance  as  the  creation  of  Yahweh, 
whose  hands  had  shaped  its  prototype,  and  whose  breath 
had  given  the  body  its  vitaHty.  The  moral  consciousness 
of  man,  which  was  in  process  of  evolution  through  his 
social  relationships  in  the  family,  the  local  group,  and 
the  nation,  attained  a  new  value  and  a  characteristic 
interpretation  as  the  moral  law  of  Yahweh.  The  very 
effort  to  obey  this  law,  and  to  promote  obedience  to  it 
on  the  part  of  others,  threw  men  back  on  the  thought 
of  the  ruacli  of  Yahweh,  the  potent  influence  from  without 
which  could  create  new  conditions  within  human  nature. 
The  common  feature  in  these  diverse  apphcations  of  the 
new  doctrine  of  God  is  insistence  on  man's  dependence 
on  Him. 

It  is  matter  of  general  knowledge  that  the  Book  of 
Genesis  offers  us  two  distinct  narratives  of  the  creation 
of  man.  That  of  the  first  chapter  (P)  is  the  later,  being 
post-exilic  ;  that  of  the  second  chapter  (J)  was  written 
approximately  in  the  ninth  century  B.C.  In  the  naive 
and  frankly  anthropomorphic  narrative  of  J  the  interest 
centres  in  man  and  his  fife,  just  as  in  the  more  restrained 
description  of  a  later  age  the  theme  is  rather  God  and  His 
glory.  '  Yahweh  Elohim  ',  runs  the  earUer  story,  '  shaped 
man,  earth  from  the  ground',  as  a  potter  would  shape  his 
clay  on  the  wheel,^  '  and  blew  into  his  nostrils  life-breath  ; 
so  man  became  a  living  being  {nephesh) '.  Here  we  have 
the  two  elements  which  make  the  unity  of  human  nature 
— the  physical  organism,  and  the  breath-soul  which 
animates  it ;    both  are  due  to  God,  and  there  is  no  hint, 

1  ii.  7.  Cf.  the  picture  of  the  Egyptian  god  Chnum  shaping  men  on  the 
potter's  wheel,  reproduced  by  Jeremias  {Das  Alie  Testament  im  Lichte  des, 
alien  Orients,"^  p.  146). 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  85 

in  this  pre-exilic  narrative,  of  any  third  element  in  the 
nature  of  man,  viz.  ruach,  nor  any  suggestion  of  dualism. 
There  is  nothing  here  to  distinguish  the  hfe-principle  in 
man  from  that  of  the  animal  world  in  general,  the  same 
phrases  being  used  of  them,i  though  the  way  in  which  it 
is  imparted  to  man  naturally  singles  him  out  from  other 
creatures.  This  distinction  is  emphasised  in  the  later 
narrative,  in  which  all  details  of  the  creative  process  dis- 
appear. '  Elohim  created  man  in  His  image,  in  the  image 
of  Elohim  created  He  him  ;  male  and  female  created  He 
them  '  (i.  27).  Here  man  is  no  longer  the  central  figure  in 
a  garden,  where  Yahweh  walks  to  enjoy  the  evening  breeze ; 
man  falls  into  his  proper  place  in  an  ordered  world, 
though  he  has  dominion  over  all  other  creatures.  What- 
ever the  doubtful  phrase,  '  the  image  of  God ',  may  mean, 
it  is  certainly  intended  to  recognise  man's  unique  relation 
to  God,  and  his  supremacy  over  the  animal  world  (cf.  p.  72). 
This  is  the  thought  which  fills  the  writer  of  the  eighth 
Psalm  with  wonder  and  gratitude  ;  a  glory  has  been  given 
to  man  little  lower  than  that  of  the  Elohim,  the  whole 
class  of  supernatural  beings  in  the  over-world.^  In  the 
104th  Psalm  the  stress  falls  on  the  continuous  dependence 
of  all  living  creatures,  including  man,  on  divine  support : 

'  All  of  them  wait  upon  Thee 

For  Thy  giving  their  food  in  its  season  ; 
Thou  givest  unto  them,  they  gather  (it), 

Thou  openest  Thine  hand,  they  are  satisfied  with  good. 
Thou  hidest  Thy  face,  they  are  dismayed. 

Thou  withdrawest  their  ruach,  they  expire, 

And  unto  their  dust  they  return. 
Thou  sendest  Thy  ruach,  they  are  created  '.^ 


1  vii.  22  (J),  i.  20  (P). 

2  On  the  other  hand,  the  contrast  between  nature  and  man  is  nsed  in  the 
Book  of  Job  to  teach  humility  (cf.  Bertholet,  Bib.  Theologie  des  A.T., 
ii.  p.  133). 

3  Ps.  civ.  27-30.  Cf.  the  phrase  used  by  P,  'the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all 
flesh'  (Num.  xvi.  22,  xxvii.  16  ;  in  both  cases  expressive  of  man's  dependence 
on  God). 


86       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

Again,  in  the  139th  Psalm,  this  dependence  of  man  on 
God  is  carried  to  its  fullest  extent.  God  knows  that 
inner  life,  the  organs  of  which  He  has  fashioned  ;  He  is 
present  from  end  to  end  of  the  earth,  in  the  heights  above, 
and  in  the  depths  below  : 

*  Behind  and  before  hast  Thou  enclosed  me, 
And  hast  put  upon  me  Thine  hand '  (verse  5). 

That  Psalm  fitly  ends  with  the  prayer  that  God  may 
search  the  heart,  because  the  true  outcome  of  man's  de- 
pendence, and  of  God's  purpose,  is  the  obedient  hfe  of 
righteousness. 

The  moral  demands  of  Yahweh  were  too  great  to  be 
satisfied  without  help  from  Yahweh  Himself.  The  prophets 
who  attempted  great  things  for  God  in  the  eighth  century 
were  followed  by  prophets  who  expected  great  things 
from  Him.  Accordingly,  Ezekiel  lays  a  characteristic 
emphasis  on  the  supernatural  help  that  is  to  create  a  new 
Israel,  able  to  accompUsh  that  in  which  the  old  Israel 
had  failed.  '  I  will  put  a  new  spirit  within  you  :  and  I 
will  take  the  stony  heart  out  of  their  flesh,  and  will  give 
them  a  heart  of  flesh  :  that  they  may  walk  in  my  statutes, 
and  keep  mine  ordinances  and  do  them  :  and  they  shall 
be  my  people,  and  I  will  be  their  God.  ...  I  have  poured 
out  my  spirit  upon  the  house  of  Israel  '.^  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  prophet  is  working  with  a  conception  drawn  from 
the  old  anthropology,  the  conception  of  invasive  influ- 
ences, affecting  human  lives,  and  imparting  new  powers 
to  them.  These  influences  were  once  thought  to  come 
from  many  quarters,  for  man's  life  was  encircled  with 
demons  and  spirits.  But  now  Yahweh  is  supreme,  and 
it  is  His  ruach  alone  that  will  change  human  character, 
and  make  the  impossible  to  be  possible.  It  is  in  this 
faith  that  the  Psalmist  prays,  '  Take  not  Thy  holy  ruach 

1  xi.  19  f.  ;  cf.  xxxvi.  26,  xxxii.  29.     Cf.  the  'new  covenant'  of  Jer.  xxxi. 
33  f. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  87 

from  me ',  and  that  the  bearer  of  the  Old  Testament  evangel 
cries,  '  The  ruach  of  the  Lord  Yahweh  is  upon  me  '.^ 
The  universal  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  man, 
awaited  by  Old  Testament  prophets  and  experienced  by- 
New  Testament  beHevers,^  is  thus  linked  to  primitive 
ideas  of  man,  and  Paul  is  a  debtor  to  the  barbarians  for 
his  spiritual  Gospel  in  a  sense  other  than  he  recognised. 

3.  The  Relation  of  the  Individual  to  the  Society 

Many  people  are  apt  to  think  that  the  increasing  '  social 
consciousness '  of  the  present  time  is  something  entirely 
new  in  the  history  of  civiHsation.  The  impression  is  true 
only  so  far  as  the  immediate  economic  and  civic  appHca- 
tions  are  concerned.  At  other  periods  of  human  develop- 
ment a  similar  sense  of  social  soKdarity  has  been  pro- 
minent, and  has  led  to  results  which,  from  the  modern 
standpoint,  are  often  starthng,  and  even  immoral.  Much 
that  is  strange  to  us  in  ancient  thought  is  due  to  what  we 
may  best  call  the  sense  of  'corporate  personality'.  The 
unit  for  morality  and  religion  is  not  so  much  the  individual 
as  the  group  to  which  he  belongs,  whether  this  be,  for 
particular  purposes,  the  family,  the  local  community,  or 
the  nation.  There  are  many  evidences  that  this  was  the 
case  in  pre-exilic  Israel.  Yahweh  was  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  only  secondarily  the  God  of  the  individual  IsraeHte. 
Individual  religion  of  course  existed,  but  it  was  construed 
through  the  society  to  which  the  individual  belonged. 
In  other  words,  the  relation  of  man  to  God,  like  the  rela- 
tion of  God  to  man,  was  mediated  through  the  corporate 
personality  of  the  nation. 

The  general  principle  of  corporate  personahty  may  be 
illustrated,  in  the  case  of  Israel,  by  the  practice  of  blood- 
revenge,  which  receives  rehgious  sanction  in  the  earher 
part  of  the  Old  Testament.     David  consulted  the  oracle 

1  Ps.  li.  11  ;  Is.  Ixi.  1.  a  joel  ii.  28  f,  ;  Acts  ii.  16  f. 


88       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

of  Yahweh  as  to  the  cause  of  a  protracted  famine,  and 
was  informed  that  it  was  due  to  the  slaughter  of  the 
Gibeonites  by  Saul.^  The  survivors  of  the  Gibeonites 
were  asked  to  name  their  terms  of  compensation,  and 
they  demanded  seven  lives  from  the  descendants  of  Saul, 
according  to  the  ordinary  principle  of  blood-revenge, 
which  treated  the  whole  family  of  the  slayer  as  the  guilty 
unit.  David  therefore  handed  over  to  them  two  of  Saul's 
sons  by  Rizpah,  and  five  of  his  grandsons.  These  men 
were  killed  by  the  Gibeonites,  and  their  bodies  exposed 
'  before  Yahweh ',  the  wrath  of  whom,  as  the  guardian 
of  social  moraHty,  was  thereby  removed.  There  was 
no  thought  of  any  injustice  to  the  individual  men  who 
were  killed.  They  perished  as  an  act  of  social  justice, 
which  was  demanded  by  the  contemporary  rehgion  of 
Israel.  Another  instructive  example  is  supphed  by  the 
story  of  Achan.2  Achan  offended  Yahweh  by  secreting 
some  of  the  spoil  of  Jericho,  which  had  been  '  devoted ' 
to  Him.  This  act  of  one  man  put  the  whole  nation 
in  the  wrong  with  Yahweh,  and  He  visited  His  wrath 
upon  them  as  a  nation  by  allowing  them  to  be  defeated. 
Inquisition  revealed  Achan  as  the  offender,  and  he  was 
accordingly  executed.  But  that  same  sense  of  corporate 
personahty  which  recognised  that  the  whole  nation  was  put 
in  the  wrong  by  the  act  of  one  man  is  further  shown  in 
the  fact  that  not  Achan  only,  but  his  whole  family,  were 
stoned  to  death  and  burnt.  This  was  no  isolated  instance 
of  vindictive  spite,  but  the  dehberate  appHcation  of  a 
principle  which  nobody  at  that  time  thought  of  challeng- 
ing, a  principle  represented  as  having  the  full  approval 
of  Yahweh.  It  is  seen  again  in  the  famihar  words  of  the 
Decalogue,  which  represent  Yahweh  as  '  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  upon  the  third 

:-     1  2  Sam.  xxi.  1  f. 

2  Josh.  vii.  24-26.     Cf.  Dan.  vi.  24  :   Daniel's  accusers,  with  their  wives 
and  children,  are  cast  into  the  lions'  den. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  89 

and  upon  the  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me  '.^ 
We  must  not  soften  such  words  into  a  statement  of  the 
consequences  of  heredity  and  social  law,  which,  indeed, 
do  often  make  the  innocent  child  suffer  for  the  parent's 
fault.  They  simply  mean  that  the  principle  of  corporate 
personality  is  involved,  which  regards  not  the  mere 
individual,  but  his  whole  family-group,  as  the  unit  of 
condemnation. 

A  fuller  recognition  of  the  claims  of  individuaHty 
was  imphed  in  the  moral  appeals  of  the  eighth- century 
prophets,  but  it  does  not  become  expUcit  until  the  pubK- 
cation  of  the  Deuteronomic  Law,  a  century  later.  The 
general  principle  is  there  asserted  that  '  the  fathers  shall 
not  be  put  to  death  for  the  children,  neither  shall  the 
children  be  put  to  death  for  the  fathers  :  every  man  shall 
be  put  to  death  for  his  own  sin  '.^  It  is,  however,  the 
contemporary  prophet  Jeremiah  who  makes  the  most 
notable  contribution  to  the  principle  of  individuaHty. 
He  does  this,  in  the  first  place,  by  the  intensity  of  his 
own  individual  relation  to  Yahweh,  at  a  time  when  the 
national  relation  seems  in  imminent  peril  of  dissolution. 
But  his  personal  attitude  becomes  explicit  in  the  prophecy 
of  the  'New  Covenant',  which  Yahweh  will  make  with 
individual  Israelites.^  This  prophecy  seems  to  be  set  in 
intentional  antithesis  to  the  Deuteronomic  Covenant  with 
the  nation  as  a  whole,  which  had  failed  of  its  purpose,* 
though  perhaps  supported  by  Jeremiah  himself  in  the 
first  instance.^  A  little  later,  the  principle  of  individual 
responsibility  was  argued  in  detail  by  Ezekiel.  He  rejects, 
as  Jeremiah  had  done,^  the  current  proverb  by  which 
people  were  explaining  the  troubles  of  their  age  :  '  The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth 

1  Ex.  XX.  5.  Cf.  2  Kings  v.  27,  where  Elisba  says  to  Gehazi :  *  The 
leprosy  of  Naaman  shall  cleave  unto  thee,  and  unto  thy  seed,  for  ever', 

2  Deut.  xxiv.  16.  3  jer.  xxxi.  33,  34. 
4  Jer.  vi.  16-21,  xxxiv.  8  f .  «  Jer.  xi.  1-14. 

6  Ezek.  xviii.  2  ;  Jer.  xxxi.  29,  30. 


90       KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [en. 

are  set  on  edge'.  'All  souls',  he  declares  in  Yahweh's 
name,*  *  are  mine ;  as  the  soul  of  the  father,  so  also  the 
soul  of  the  son  is  mine  :  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die  '. 
But  the  older  principle  of  the  soHdarity  of  the  family 
still  flourished,  as  is  plain  from  the  protest  against  it  in 
the  Book  of  Job  : 

'  God  layeth  up  his  iniquity  for  his  children  1 

Let   Him    recompense  it  unto   himself,   that   he  may 
know  it  '.2 

The  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  individual  life  was 
certain  to  be  reached  by  any  real  progress  in  moraUty 
and  rehgion,  and  when  it  was  reached  it  had  important 
consequences.  It  raised  the  whole  problem  of  suffering, 
for  the  experience  of  Hfe  did  not  confirm  Ezekiel's  declara- 
tion of  an  exact  individual  retribution  and  reward.  The 
problem  of  suffering,  as  will  be  shown,  raised  the  related 
problem  of  the  future  life.  The  corporate  future  of  the 
family  or  the  nation  on  earth  could  no  longer  satisfy  those 
who  had  come  to  feel  their  individual  relation  to  God, 
and  to  consider  what  death  meant.  The  effects  of  the 
new  demands  are  visible  in  the  Hterature  of  the  period 
between  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  with  its  marked 
accentuation  of  individuahsm,  and  its  complex  eschato- 
logical  developments.  It  is,  however,  only  in  the  New 
Testament  that  we  find  '  a  synthesis  of  the  eschatologies 
of  the  race  and  the  individual '.^  The  individuahsm  of 
the  New  Testament  owes  its  pecuhar  quahties  to  that 
social  emphasis  from  which,  in  the  Old  Testament  period, 
it  had  been  developed.  For,  just  as  the  older  emphasis 
in  morahty  and  rehgion  on  the  sense  of  corporate  person- 
ahty  did  not  exclude  the  growth  of  individual  experience, 
so  the  newer  emphasis  on  the  individual  did  not  imply  the 
rejection  of  a  very  real  and  vital  social  sohdarity.  What 
we  regard  as  the  old  error  contributed,  and  contributed 

1  Ezek.  xviii.  4.  2  Job  xxi.  19.  »  Charles,  E.  Bi.,  col.  1372. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  91 

richly,  to  the  new  truth.  Whether  we  think  of  the  remark- 
able patriotic  solidarity  of  the  Jewish  people,  maintained 
at  such  cost,  and  for  so  long,  or  of  the  finest  and  highest 
rehgious  conception  of  the  Old  Testament,  that  of  the 
mission  and  work  of  the  corporate  Israel  as  the  Servant 
of  Yahweh,  or  of  the  foundation  laid  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment reUgion  for  the  social  individuaHsm  of  the  New — 
we  may  see,  once  more,  that  without  the  shadowed  valleys 
of  the  reUgion  of  Israel  we  should  not  have  had  its  moun- 
tain peaks. 

4.  The  Future  Life 

Just  because  the  sense  of  corporate  personaHty  was  so 
strongly  developed  in  early  Israel,  the  idea  of  a  future  life 
for  the  individual  was  hardly  reached  within  the  Old 
Testament.  The  Israehte  felt  that  he  went  on  Hving  in 
his  children  to  a  degree  that  really  made  their  Hfe  his 
own.  We  have  seen,  as  in  the  case  of  Saul's  descend- 
ants, that  he  could  be  punished  through  his  children, 
according  to  contemporary  thought.  When  the  prophet 
pictures  Rachel  at  her  grave  in  Ramah  weeping  for  her 
children,^  it  is  much  more  than  metaphor.  The  woman 
of  Tekoa  appeals  to  David  to  spare  the  Ufe  of  her  surviv- 
ing son,  who  has  slain  his  brother,  because,  as  she  says, 
'  thus  shall  they  quench  my  coal  which  is  left,  and  shall 
leave  to  my  husband  neither  name  nor  remainder  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth  '.^  Hence  the  importance  attached 
by  the  Hebrew  to  a  numerous  posterity ;  it  is  not  said 
to  the  good  man  that  he  shall  be  rewarded  in  some  future 
Ufe,  but 

*  Thou  shalt  know  also  that  thy  seed  shall  be  great, 
And  thine  offspring  as  the  grass  of  the  earth  '.^ 

When  men  die  they  are  gathered  unto  their  fathers,  and 
1  Jer.  ixxi.  15.  2  2  Sam.  xiv.  7.  »  Job  v.  25. 


92       EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

desire  to  be  buried  in  the  family  grave. ^  Israelite  customs 
in  regard  to  the  burial  of  the  dead  seem  to  point  to  some 
form  of  ancestor-worship  as  surviving  from  previous 
times  into  the  earUer  centuries  of  Yahwism.^  This  would 
explain  the  opposition  of  the  prophets  to  some  of  these 
customs,  as  well  as  to  the  practice  of  consulting  the  dead 
for  information  unattainable  by  natural  means.  '  Ye 
shall  not  cut  yourselves,  nor  make  any  baldness  between 
your  eyes,  for  the  dead ',  says  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
(xiv.  1),  whilst  Isaiah  speaks  contemptuously  of  those 
who  resort  '  unto  them  that  have  familiar  spirits  and  unto 
the  wizards,  that  chirp  and  that  mutter'  (viii.  19).  An 
instructive  example  of  such  necromancy  is  afforded  by 
the  well-known  visit  of  Saul  to  the  witch  of  Endor,  when 
'  Yahweh  answered  him  not,  neither  by  dreams,  nor  by 
Urim,  nor  by  prophets  '.^  The  shade  of  Samuel,  attired 
as  of  old,  is  represented  as  asking,  '  Why  hast  thou  dis- 
quieted me,  to  bring  me  up  ?  ' 

The  dead  are  thus  supposed  to  go  on  existing  in  some 
sense  or  other,  even  by  the  early  thought  of  Israel.  But  it 
is  an  existence  that  has  no  attraction  for  the  IsraeHte,  and 
falls  outside  the  sphere  of  his  proper  reUgion.  It  is  not 
his  soul  that  survives  at  all ;  the  dead  are  called  '  shades  ' 
(rephaim),  not  '  souls  ',  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  (sub- 
terranean) place  of  their  abiding  is  called  Sheol,  and  in 
many  particulars  it  is  hke  the  Greek  Hades.  Sheol  seems 
to  be  an  outgrowth  of  the  family  grave,  probably  under 
the  influence  of  Babylonian  ideas.  It  is  '  the  house  of 
meeting  for  all  Uving',  '  the  land  of  darkness,  and  of  the 
shadow  of  death',*  where  the  distinctions  of  earth,  even 
its  moral  distinctions,  cease  to  operate  : 

*  There  the  wicked  cease  from  raging, 
And  there  the  weary  be  at  rest. 

1  Jud.  ii.  10  ;  2  Sam.  xix.  37. 

2  In  support  of  this  view,  see  Charles,  E.  Bi.,  col.  1335  f.  ;  against  it, 
Kautzsch,  D.  B.,  v,  pp.  614  f.     Samuel's  shade  is  called  '  Elohim'. 

8  1  Sara,  xiyiii.  6.  4  job  xxx.  23,  x.  21. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  93 

There  the  prisoners  are  at  ease  together ; 

They  hear  not  the  voice  of  the  taskmaster. 
The  small  and  the  great  are  there ; 

And  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master  '.^ 

The  most  vivid  description  of  Sheol,  however,  is  that 
vrhich  is  found  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  describing  the  fall 
of  a  tyrant : 

*  Sheol  beneath  is  thrilled  at  thee, 

Meeting  thine  advent ; 
Arousing  for  thee  the  shades, 

All  the  bell-wethers  of  Earth, 
Making  rise  up  from  their  thrones 

All  the  kings  of  the  nations. 
They  shall  all  of  them  answer 

And  say  to  thee, 
"  llioii^  too,  art  made  weak  as  we, 

Unto  us  art  made  like". 
Brought  down  unto  Sheol  is  thy  pomp, 

The  music  of  thy  lutes  ; 
Beneath  thee  maggots  are  spread, 

And  (of)  worms  is  thy  coverlet  '.^ 

This  gives  the  characteristic  feature  of  Sheol  for  Hebrew 
thought — 'made  weak  as  we'.  The  same  note  echoes 
through  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  the 
Song  of  Hezekiah,^  and  in  many  of  the  Psalms.  To  pass 
into  Sheol  is  to  pass  from  life  into  death,  for  '  in  Sheol 
who  shall  give  Thee  thanks  ?  '  *  Sheol  is  a  survival  of 
the  pre-Yahwistic  beliefs  of  Israel,  and  is  not  usually 
conceived  as  lying  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Yahweh. 

It  will  be  apparent  that  so  cheerless  an  outlook  as  this 
could  provide  no  doctrine  of  a  future  life  worthy  of  the 
name.  Israel  remained  content  with  it  so  long  because, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  hope  of  Israel  lay  with  the  future  of 

1  Job  iii.  17-19. 

2  xiv.    9-11.      Trans,    by   G.    B.    Gray,    in    the    International    CrUical 
Commentary,  p.  248.     For  another  account  of  Sheol,  see  Ezek.  xxxii.  18  f, 

8  Is.  xxxviii.  10  f.  *  Ps.  vi.  5. 


94       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

the  family  or  of  the  nation,  a  future  to  be  reahsed  on 
earth.  But,  with  the  failure  of  the  national  hope,  involved 
in  the  destruction  of  the  Judsean  kingdom,  and  with  the 
rise  of  the  new  individuahsm,  the  outlook  on  the  individual 
future  beyond  death  was  necessarily  affected.  The  same 
monotheistic  influences  which  extended  the  sway  of 
Yahweh  beyond  the  land  of  Israel  over  the  whole  earth 
tended,  sooner  or  later,  to  carry  it  into  the  dark  land  of 
Sheol.  Already  we  find  Amos  saying  in  Yahweh' s  name, 
'  Though  they  dig  into  Sheol,  thence  shall  my  hand  take 
them',  whilst  a  Psalmist  confesses  the  omnipresence  of 
God  in  the  words,  '  If  I  make  my  bed  in  Sheol,  behold. 
Thou  art  there  '.^  Sooner  or  later,  men  found  that  the 
hard  and  fast  doctrine  of  individual  retribution  enunciated 
by  Ezekiel  broke  down,  so  far  as  the  visible  hves  of  indi- 
vidual men  were  concerned.  It  lay  in  the  nature  of 
things,  therefore,  that  the  book  which  especially  handles 
the  problem  of  suffering,  the  Book  of  Job,  should  make 
the  first  tentative  demand  for  a  Hfe  beyond  death. ^  The 
problem  would  not  have  existed  in  the  form  it  did  for 
Job,  if  he  had  been  able  to  maintain,  with  the  support  of 
estabhshed  behef ,  that  in  some  future  Hfe  the  injustice  of 
his  sufferings  would  be  rectified.  He  does,  in  fact,  for  a 
moment  imagine  that  there  might  be  some  such  future  in 
his  own  case,  but  the  transient  imagination  cannot  bear 
the  weight  of  his  cares  : 

'  Oh,  that  Thou  wouldest  hide  me  in  Sheol, 

That  Thou  wouldest  keep  me  in  secret,  until  Thy  wrath  be 

past, 
That  Thou  wouldest  appoint  me  a  set  time,  and  remember 
me ! 


1  Amos  ii.  2  ;  Ps.  ciixix,  8.  The  character  of  Sheol  remains  unaltered  by 
this  inclusion  in  Yahweh's  dominion. 

2  The  suggestion  that  the  tree  of  life  in  Eden  might  have  conferred 
immortality  on  Adam  (Gen.  iii.  22),  and  the  translations  of  Enoch  (v.  24), 
and  Elijah  (2  Kings  ii.  11),  are  exceptional  cases,  and  simply  prove  the  rule 
for  the  common  man,  that  no  real  life  beyond  death  awaited  him. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  95 

If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  1 

All  the  days  of  my  warfare  would  I  wait 
Till  my  release  should  come. 

Thou  shouldest  call,  and  I  would  answer  Thee : 

Thou  wouldest  have  a  desire  to  the  work  of  Thy  hands '. 

(xiv.  13-15.) 

This  desire  for  some  exceptional  vindication  of  the  speaker's 
innocence  finds  yet  stronger  expression  in  famous  and 
frequently  misunderstood  words  : 

*  But  I — I  know  that  my  Vindicator  liveth. 

And  in  after  time  shall  take  His  stand  upon  the  dust ; 
And  after  my  skin,  which  has  been  thus  struck  off, 

Even  without  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God. 
Whom  I  shall  see  for  myself. 

And  my  eyes  shall  behold,  and  not  a  stranger ; 

My  reins  are  consumed  within  me  ! '  ^ 

Here,  again,  the  hope  is  not  so  much  of  a  future  life,  as 
of  a  future  vindication,  for  the  sake  of  which  life  shall 
be  exceptionally  restored.  Even  from  this  hope  Job 
falls  back  in  the  following  chapters,  showing  clearly 
that  it  is  a  personal  venture  of  faith  which  is  in  question, 
and  not  an  established  doctrine. 

We  may  find  similar  ventures  of  faith  in  certain  of  the 
Psalms,  prompted  by  the  same  problem  of  human  fortunes, 
and  characterised  by  the  indefiniteness  which  we  should 
expect  to  find  in  such  gropings  after  a  dimly  conceived 
truth.  The  most  important  of  these  is  the  great  passage 
in  the  73rd  Psalm  : 

*  Nevertheless,  I  am  continually  with  Thee ; 
Thou  boldest  my  right  hand. 
Thou  wilt  guide  me  with  Thy  counsel, 
And  afterward  receive  me  with  glory. 


1  Job  xix.  25-27.     The  translation  is  Burney's,  in  Israel's  Hope  of  Immor- 
tality (p.  52),  which  gives  a  fuller  (popular)  discussion  of  the  whole  topic. 


96       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee  ? 

And  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  beside  Thee. 
!My  flesh  and  my  heart  faileth, 

God  is  the  rock  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for  ever'.^ 

The  important  point  to  notice  in  this,  and  in  other  pos- 
sible references,  is  the  particular  quality  of  the  hope 
resulting  from  the  way  in  which  it  was  reached.  The 
hope  of  a  future  is  made  to  depend  on  the  relation  of  the 
soul  to  God.  That  relation  is  felt  to  have  a  mystical  value, 
transcending  the  fact  of  death.  We  have  here,  as  has 
been  truly  said,  '  a  strength  of  conviction  of  the  reality 
of  personal  union  with  God,  under  which  the  thought  of 
death  as  it  were  fades  into  the  background  and  is  ignored. 
.  .  .  This  conviction  of  a  personal  relation  to  God  inde- 
pendent of  time  and  change,  and  not  any  particular  theory 
as  to  the  character  of  the  life  after  death,  is  the  lasting 
contribution  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  doctrine  of  a 
Future  Life  \^  The  fact  that  this  belief  appeared  so  late 
gave  it  the  opportunity,  when  it  did  come,  to  absorb 
the  noblest  moral  and  spiritual  elements  in  Israel's  religion, 
and  to  transcend  all  the  ideas  of  the  future  held  by 
contemporary  nations.^ 

But  such  a  faith  in  the  future  as  this  perhaps  demanded 
too  high  a  degree  of  spiritual  development  for  it  ever  to 
become  the  faith  of  the  average  man.  To  translate  it  into 
his  vernacular,  moreover,  would  have  required  the  philo- 
sophical outlook  of  the  Greek  world,  with  its  character- 
istic doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  This  Greek 
doctrine  is,  in  fact,  borrowed  by  the  author  of  the  Apocry- 
phal   book  known  as  the   Wisdom   of   Solomon.*      But 

1  The  reference  to  a  future  life  found  by  some  in  Pss.  xvi.  10,  11  and 
xvii.  15  is  improbable  ;  that  alleged  in  Ps.  xlix.  15  is  more  likely.  The  sub- 
ject is  discussed  in  detail  by  Cheyne,  Origin  of  the  Psalter,  pp.  381-425. 

2  Burney,  op.  cit.,  pp.  46,  104. 

3  Cf.  Sellin,  Die  alttest.  Religion,  p.  55.  On  the  other  hand,  a  'natural* 
immortality  (on  Greek  lines)  would  have  made  man  too  independent  of  God 
for  Hebrew-Jewish  thought. 

*  iii.  1-9. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  97 

Hebrew  psychology  pointed  along  another  line,  that  leading 
to  the  idea  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  We  have  seen 
that  human  nature  was  conceived  by  the  Hebrew  as  a 
unity  requiring  both  elements,  body  and  soul,  to  con- 
stitute it.  Existence  in  Sheol  lacked  vitahty,  because  it 
lacked  both  body  and  soul.  If  the  Hebrew  was  to  acquire 
any  idea  of  hfe  after  death  which  possessed  a  real  vitality, 
according  to  his  native  conceptions  of  life,  there  would 
have  to  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead  body  for  the  re- 
covered soul  to  animate  it.  This  is  the  hne  along  which 
the  thought  of  Palestinian  Judaism,  as  distinct  from  the 
Alexandrian  or  Graecised  Judaism,  actually  developed  in 
the  period  between  the  two  Testaments.  The  beginning 
of  this  idea  of  a  resurrection  of  the  body  is  already  found 
in  two  passages  of  the  Old  Testament,  both  of  them  con- 
nected with  the  Messianic  hope  of  Judaism.*  The  earher 
of  these,  belonging  possibly  to  the  fourth  century  B.C., 
is  obscure  in  detail,  but  clear  as  to  the  point  in  question, 
the  faith  that  Yahweh  will  raise  to  life  the  bodies  of  His 
martyrs  :  *  Thy  dead  shall  live  ;  my  dead  bodies  shall 
arise.  Awake  and  ring  out  your  joy,  ye  that  dwell  in  the 
dust ;  for  a  dew  of  hghts  is  thy  dew,  and  the  earth  shall 
give  birth  to  shades '.^  It  should  be  carefully  noticed 
that  this  resurrection-life  is  to  be  reahsed  in  Palestine, 
with  the  earthly  Jerusalem  as  its  centre  ;  there  is  no 
reference  to  a  future  life  in  some  other  world,  nor  is  it 
believed  that  any  but  faithful  Israehtes  will  be  raised.^ 
The  later  passage,  found  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  belongs 
definitely  to  the  second  century  B.C.,  that  book  having 
been  written  in  the  period  of  persecution  suffered  by  the 
Jews  from  168  to  165  B.C.  We  there  read,  'Many  of 
them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake,  some 
to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  reproaches  and  everlasting 

1  Ezekiel's  vision  of  the  Valley  of  Dry  Bones  (xxxvii.)  is  a  metaphor, 
describing  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  not  a  promise  of  actual 
indiridual  resurrection. 

'  Is.  xivi.  19.  •  Contrast  verse  14. 

G 


98       RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

abhorrence'  (xii.  2).  Here  there  is  a  notable  advance  on 
the  previous  conception  of  the  resurrection.  It  is  not 
yet  universal,  for  apparently  it  is  confined  to  those  only 
who  have  been  prominent  for  good  or  for  evil  in  contem- 
porary events.  But  there  is  a  resurrection  of  the  wicked, 
as  well  as  of  the  good,  and  punishment  and  reward  are 
respectively  assigned  to  them.  Here,  also,  it  is  in  the 
future  Ufe  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  to  be  estabhshed  on 
earth  that  the  saints  of  God  will  share.  The  faith  of  the 
writer  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  was  continued  in  the  Pharisees 
of  the  New  Testament,  just  as  the  Sadducees  continued  the 
entire  scepticism  as  to  any  future  life  displayed  in  Ecclesi- 
astes.i  The  elaborate  development  of  eschatology  in  the 
Apocalyptic  Hterature,  e.g.  the  Book  of  Enoch  (part  of 
which  belongs  to  the  same  age  as  the  Book  of  Daniel), 
necessarily  falls  beyond  our  subject.  All  that  we  have 
to  note  is  that  the  Old  Testament  lays  the  foundation  for 
the  doctrine  of  future  life  given  in  the  New,  both  on  the 
cruder  side  of  a  Messianic  resurrection,  and  on  the  finer, 
more  spiritual  side,  which  is  represented  in  the  ultimate 
outlook  of  the  Apostle  Paul.^ 

As  we  look  back  on  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  human 
nature  and  destiny,  we  see  that  man  stands  out  in  clear 
distinction  from  both  Nature  and  God.^  Man  is  no  mere 
item  in  the  natural  world,  but  is  separately  created  by 
God,  who  controls  Nature  in  the  interests  of  His  purposes 
for  man.  Man  is  finked  to  God  by  the  moral  law  which 
God  has  made  known  to  him  ;  in  the  companionship  for 
which  this  law  is  the  condition,  man  and  God  stand  together 
far  above  Nature's  level.  In  fact,  there  is  no  '  Nature ', 
written  with  a  capital  letter,  as  a  unity  apart  from  God, 
but  simply  a  world  of  natural  phenomena  entirely  in  God's 
hand,  and  made  the  arena  for  human  history.     But,  in 

1  iii.  19-22;  ix.  3-6;  cf.  p.  174. 

2  (.'f.  H.  W.  Robinson,  The  Christian  Doctrine  of  Man,  pp.  129-31. 

3  Cf.  the  excellent  presentation  of  this  in  Koeberle's  Natur  und  Geist, 
chap.  xxii.  ('Die  Stellung  des  Menschen  in  der  Natur'). 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  99 

contrast  with  God,  man  is  characterised  by  his  utter 
dependence  on  Him,  both  for  his  existence  and  for  his 
destiny.  If  that  destiny  is  to  be  achieved,  it  will  be  only 
by  the  help  of  God.  Whilst  it  is  seen  that  that  destiny 
is  the  reahsation  of  righteousness,  the  plane  on  which  it 
is  to  be  reahsed  is  held  to  be  the  present  world.  The 
intensity  with  which  the  IsraeUte  chngs  to  the  present 
life  corresponds  to  his  behef  that  personahty  is  a  unity, 
demanding  both  soul  and  body,  and  that  there  is  no  Ufe, 
worthy  of  the  name,  beyond  death.  When  his  faith  does 
begin  to  assail  the  iron  gate  of  death,  it  is  with  a  demand 
for  future  hfe  all  the  richer  and  fuller  because  of  his  long 
concentration  on  the  life  that  now  is.  The  immortaUty 
he  craves  is  essentially  the  society  of  God,  already  opened 
to  him  in  moral  and  spiritual  experience.  The  resur- 
rection of  the  body  for  which  he  ultimately  asks,  as  neces- 
sary to  the  restoration  of  personahty,  is  the  prelude  to 
the  estabhshment  of  a  society  of  the  servants  of  God. 
For,  however  much  the  Old  Testament  comes  to  reahse 
the  individuality  of  salvation,  that  individuahty  always 
carries  with  it  the  wealth  of  social  relationship  which  is 
the  legacy  of  centuries  of  closely-knit  corporate  Hfe. 

We  have  but  to  contrast  this  idea  of  man  with  others 
widely  current  in  the  ancient  or  modern  world  to  recognise 
that  the  conception  held  by  Israel  most  of  all  deserves 
the  title  '  rehgious  ', — i.e.  human  nature  is  interpreted 
through  its  relation  to  a  personal  God.  The  thought  of 
India  is  ultimately  metaphysical ;  the  human  soul  in  its 
successive  transmigrations  is  always  dominated  by  its  back- 
ground of  Pantheistic  absorption.  The  thought  of  Greece 
banishes  its  gods,  and  enters  the  scientific  realms  of  biology 
and  psychology,  though  numerous  cults  and  mysteries  testify 
to  the  irrepressible  rehgious  needs  of  the  soul.  It  is  less 
easy  to  analyse  the  subtle  combinations  of  modern  thought, 
which  borrows  from  so  much  of  the  past  professedly  left 
behind.     But  a  clear  contrast  with  the  Hebrew  idea  of 


100     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

man  is  supplied  by  those  who  philosophise  from  the  stand- 
point of  natural  science.  Man  is  '  Nature's  Insurgent 
Son \^  'a  part  of  Nature,  a  product  of  the  definite  and 
orderly  evolution  which  is  universal ;  a  being  resulting 
from  and  driven  by  the  one  great  nexus  of  mechanism 
which  we  call  Nature ' ;  '  Man  forms  a  new  departure  in 
the  gradual  unfolding  of  Nature's  predestined  scheme ' ; 
'  Man  is  Nature's  rebel '  ;  '  the  knowledge  and  control 
of  Nature  is  Man's  destiny  and  his  greatest  need  '.^  Here 
Nature  as  creator  takes  the  place  of  Israel's  God,  and  ma,n 
is  left  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  without  religious  fear 
or  trembhng.  By  the  side  of  this  current  idea  of  man 
we  may  set  the  Pantheistic  optimism  to  which  Emerson 
has  given  striking  and  memorable  expression.  Take,  for 
example,  his  essay  on  '  The  Over-Soul ',  any  page  of  which 
would  supply  illustrative  examples.  '  Within  man  is  the 
soul  of  the  whole  ;  the  wise  silence  ;  the  universal  beauty, 
to  which  every  part  and  particle  is  equally  related  ;  the 
eternal  ONE.  .  .  .  The  simplest  person,  who  in  his  integrity 
worships  God,  becomes  God.  ...  I  am  somehow  recep- 
tive of  the  great  soul,  and  thereby  I  do  overlook  the  sun 
and  the  stars,  and  feel  them  to  be  the  fair  accidents  and 
effects  which  change  and  pass'.  Here  Nature,  in  the 
narrower  scientific  sense,  has  become  as  subservient  to 
Spirit  as  it  is  for  Hebrew  thought,  but  the  mystical  relation 
of  man  to  the  '  Over-soul '  is  entirely  different  from  that 
Hebrew  '  mysticism '  which  brought  the  human  and  the 
divine  spiritually  face  to  face,  without  losing  their 
distinction. 

The  Psalmist  whom  the  night-sky  stirred  to  ask  the 
great  question,  '  What  is  man  ? '  found  a  double  echo 
to  his  words.3  One  was  a  bitter  parody  of  them,  wrung 
from  a  sufferer's  Hps ;   the  other  an  Ecce  Homo,  applying 

u  \'^^^L*^*J®.  of  Ray  Lankester's  Romanes  Lecture  in  1905;  given  in  his 
book   The  kingdom  of  Man,  pp.  1-61,  and  forming  a  good  statement  of  the 
'evolutionary    point  of  view. 
«  Op.  ciL,  pp.  7,  25,  26,  60.  »  See  Job  vii.  17,  18 ;  Heb.  ii.  6-9. 


IV.]  THE  IDEA  OF  MAN  101 

them  to  '  Him  who  hath  been  made  a  Uttle  lower  than  the 
angels,  even  Jesus,  because  of  the  suffering  of  death 
crowned  with  glory  and  honour'.  Around  the  explana- 
tion of  these  three  passages,  so  closely  linked,  might  be 
gathered  no  small  part  of  the  Biblical  doctrine  of  man. 
They  respectively  teach  that  the  fundamental  fact  of 
human  life  is  man's  dependence  on  God,  that  much  in 
the  course  of  man's  hfe  appears  to  be  tragic  defeat,  that 
through  the  discipline  and  sacrifice  of  suffering  man  can 
achieve  a  victory  worthy  of  his  God-given  nature  and 
place  in  the  universe. 


102     FwELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 


CHAPTER  Y 

THE   APPROACH   OF   GOD   TO   MAN 

Ancient  religion  does  not,  in  the  first  instance,  spring 
from  pious  meditation  on  the  universe,  or  from  the  aspira- 
tions of  moral  and  spiritual  Hfe  after  fellowship  with  the 
gods.  It  usually  begins  in  some  definite  occurrence, 
some  surprise  on  the  path  of  famiHar  custom,  some  unex- 
plained experience.  In  rehgion,  as  in  science,  the  excep- 
tion does  not  so  much  '  prove  the  rule '  as  form  the  point 
of  departure  for  the  discovery  of  new  rules.  Just  as  the 
slight  deviation  of  one  planet  from  its  path  in  the  skies 
has,  before  now,  served  to  discover  the  presence  of  another, 
so  any  interruption  of  a  man's  normal  life  may  open  his 
eyes  to  a  '  supernatural '  world.  '  Looking  upon  the 
rehgious  tradition  of  Beny  Israel,  from  the  soil  of  the 
desert ',  says  Doughty,  speaking  with  his  unrivalled  know- 
ledge of  the  modern  Beduin,  '  we  might  muse  of  its  rising 
in  Jacob's  family,  out  of  the  nomad  Semites'  vision  of 
the  meluk\  i.e.  the  '  angels  of  the  air',  perhaps  originally 
suggested  by  mirage.^  '  Jacob's  ladder '  may  be  but  the 
stairway  of  a  dream  ;  yet,  given  certain  conditions  of 
thought,  it  may  be  transformed  into  the  greatest  of 
spiritual  reahties,  '  the  great  world's  altar-stairs  that 
slope  through  darkness  up  to  God '. 

The  attitude  of  ancient  religion  towards  both  psychical 
and  external  events  is  different  from  our  own.  Primitive 
thought  is  wanting  in  any  sharp  distinction  between  sub- 
jective and  objective  experiences ;   a  dream,  for  example, 

1  Arabia  Deserta,  ii.  p.  379  ;  cf.  i.  pp.  449,  548. 


v.]  THE  APPKOACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  103 

is  regarded  as  a  vision  of  something  externally  existent. 
Similarly,  there  is  nothing  Hke  that  clear-cut  Hne  which 
is  often  drawn  to-day  between  the  natural  and  the  super- 
natural ;  there  is  no  conception  of  '  Nature  '  as  an  entity, 
with  laws  of  its  own  in  contrast  with  '  supernatural ' 
interferences  with  those  laws ;  the  whole  environment 
consists  partly  of  the  visible  and  partly  of  the  invisible, 
and  the  practical  distinction  is  that  between  the  usual 
and  the  unusual.  The  result  of  these  conditions  is  that 
something  we  might  explain  as  a  purely  natural  pheno- 
menon may  be  taken  as  the  revelation  or  manifestation 
of  some  power  of  the  mysterious  world,  and  may  become 
the  starting-point  of  reHgious  belief  or  practice. 

The  beHefs  of  Semitic  nomads,  in  ancient  and  in  modem 
times,  suggest  four  principal  ways  in  which  the  '  spiritual ' 
powers  of  their  environment  were  conceived  to  approach 
men,  and  to  influence  their  hves.  (1)  A  man's  attention 
might  be  drawn  to  something  pecuHar  or  unusual  in  his 
immediate  surroundings,  e.g.  a  desert  mirage,  or  a  rusthng 
tree.^  (2)  Good  or  bad  fortune,  especially  as  concen- 
trated in  some  particular  event,  might  be  ascribed  to  spirit 
interference.^  (3)  An  ancient  worshipper  was  generally 
very  definite  in  his  petitions ;  he  wanted  practical  guid- 
ance and  help,  and  expected  some  sign  or  token  as  the 
response  of  the  spirit-world  to  his  questions.^     (4)  Any 

1  Thus  an  Arab  of  the  Moabite  country  was  frightened  at  sight  of  a  group 
of  horsemen  ;  when  he  saw  the  mirage  effect  Vanish,  he  ascribed  the  vision 
to  a  demon  (Jaussen,  Coutmnes  des  Arabes,  p.  322).  A  holy  man  at  Nebk 
claimed  to  have  seen  a  sacred  walnut-tree  in  flames  near  a  shrine  (Curtiss, 
Primitive  Semitic  Religion,  p.  93)— probably  like  the  burning  bush  of  Moses, 
an  appearance  due  to  some  electrical  phenomenon  (Robertson  Smith,  Eel. 
Seni.,  p.  194).  Doughty  slept  once  in  a  ruin  supposed  to  be  haunted  by 
jinns,  or  spirits,  and  traced  the  belief  to  the  waving  branches  of  a  palm  in 
the  orchard  near  {Ar.  Des.,  ii.  p.  3). 

2  An  absent-minded  rider  passed  a  sacred  tomb  near  Ter'in  without 
saluting  it,  and  within  half  an  hour  was  thrown  from  his  horse  and  broke 
his  leg  ;  he  rapidly  recovered,  however,  when  a  she-goat  was  sacrificed  at 
the  tomb  (Jaussen,  op.  cit.,  p.  299). 

3  A  favourite  form  amongst  the  ancient  Arabs  was  the  casting  of  lots  by 
blunt  arrows;  these  signified  'yes'  and  'no',  in  connection  with  sacrifice 
before  an  idol  (Wellhausen,  Reste,  p.  133).     Holy  wells  gave  oracles,  as  at 


104     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

peculiar  physical  or  psychical  state  of  personal  hfe  could 
be  ascribed  to  an  invasive  spirit  or  demon.  In  ancient 
Arabia  the  '  jinns '  were  made  responsible  for  everything 
abnormal,  but  especially  for  madness,  passion,  the  inspira- 
tion of  seer,  poet,  or  musician.^ 

The  general  influence  of  Semitic  animism  upon  the 
religion  of  Israel  has  already  been  noticed.^  These  four 
ways  of  conceiving  the  contact  of  the  spirit-world  with 
human  life  are  all  represented  in  the  Old  Testament,  but 
they  are  appropriated  for  Yahweh  alone,  who  draws 
near  to  man  'by  dream,  by  oracle,  or  seer',  and  by  His 
control  of  the  fortunes  of  a  nation  or  an  individual.  The 
entrance  of  Yahweh  into  human  Ufe,  as  conceived  by  the 
earher  rehgion  of  Israel,  is  made  through  (a)  theophanies, 
i.e.  appearances  of  Yahweh ;  (6)  miracles ;  (c)  various 
forms  of  oracle ;  {d)  the  abnormal  physical  and  psychical 
states  explained  by  reference  to  the  Spirit  of  Yahweh. 
These,  it  will  be  seen,  correspond  to  the  four  ways  indicated 
for  the  Semites  in  general.  In  connection  with  the  last 
of  them,  when  transformed  by  a  growing  sense  of  morahty, 
there  appears  that  pecuhar  and  distinctive  feature  of 
Israel's  rehgion,  the  prophetic  consciousness.  Finally,  the 
message  of  Yahweh  through  the  Hving  voice  is  replaced 
by  that  through  the  written  word,  which  is  itself,  in  large 
measure,  a  secondary  product  of  the  prophetic  conscious- 
ness and  of  the  priestly  oracle. 

1.  Early  Manifestations  of  Yahweh 

(a)  The  theophanies  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  are 
of  two  principal  types,  according  as  the  media  of  mani- 

Aphaca,  by  tlie  sinkiug  or  casting  forth  of  the  gift  {Rel.  Sem.,  p.  178).  After 
sacrifice  at  a  sacred  tree,  a  modern  Arab  who  is  sick  will  sleep  beneath  it, 
in  faith  that  the  spirit  will  come  to  him  and,  in  a  dream,  tell  him  how  to  get 
well(^r.  Z>e5.,  i.  p.  449). 

1  VVellhausen,  op.  cit.,  p.  156.  Doughty  was  often  expected  to  show  his 
skill  as  a  physician  by  binding  and  casting  out  the  jinns  causing  sickness 
(Ar.  Def.,  i.  p.  548). 

2  Chap.  ii.  §  3. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  105 

festation  are  supplied  by  natural  phenomena  or  by  the 
human  form.  In  the  former  class,  the  dominating  idea 
is  that  which  brings  Yahweh  into  special  relation  with 
storm-phenomena.  This  has  led  to  the  belief  that  Yahweh 
was  originally,  in  pre-Mosaic  times,  a  storm-god.  There  is 
no  question  that  Hebrew  thought  interpreted  the  thunder- 
storm as  an  avenue  of  approach  pecuHarly  appropriate 
to  Yahweh.  The  Law  was  given  on  Sinai  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  '  thunders  and  hghtnings  and  a  thick  cloud 
upon  the  mount ',  and  it  was  in  the  calm  after  a  thunder- 
storm that  EHjah  heard  God  there.^  When  Yahweh 
came  from  the  south  to  help  His  people  on  the  Great  Plain, 
'  the  earth  trembled,  the  heavens  also  dropped,  yea,  the 
clouds  dropped  water  '.^  The  thunder  is  the  '  voice  '  of 
Yahweh ;  the  lightnings  are  His  arrows  and  glittering 
spear ;  the  original  suggestion  of  the  rainbow  was  that 
Yahweh  had  laid  aside  His  battle-bow.^  Samuel  offers  and 
obtains  thunder  and  rain  in  harvest-time  as  a  token  from 
Yahweh.*  Prophets  describe  the  judgment  of  Yahweh 
against  His  enemies  as  accomplished  through  the  storm  : 
'  Yahweh  shall  cause  His  glorious  voice  to  be  heard,  and 
shall  show  the  lighting  down  of  His  arm,  with  the  indigna- 
tion of  His  anger,  and  the  flame  of  a  devouring  fire,  with 
a  blast,  and  tempest,  and  hailstones  '.^  The  cherubim 
and  seraphim  are  mythological  figures  apparently  derived 
from  the  thunder-cloud  chariot  of  Yahweh,  and  from  His 
serpent-like  hghtning.  Yahweh  is  also  manifested  by 
the  phenomena  of  fire  in  general,  as  by  the  stove  vomiting 
smoke  and  flame  that  passed  between  the  pieces  of  Abram's 
sacrifice,  the  burning  bush  seen  by  Moses,  the  pillar  of 
cloud-shrouded  fire  that  led  the  Israehtes,  the  cloud  that 
filled  the  temple  of  Solomon.®      Similarly,  in  the  later 

1  Ex.  lix.  16 ;  1  Kings  xix.  11,  12. 

*  Jud.  V.  4  ;  cf,  the  storm-theopliany  of  Ps.  xviii. 

3  Ps.  xxix. ;  Hab.  iii.  11  ;  Gen.  ix.  13  (P). 

4  1  Sam.  xii.  17,  18  ;  cf.  1  Kings  xviii.  44.  Ts.  xxx.  80. 
«  Gen.  XV.  17 ;  Ex.  iii.  2,  xiii.  21,  22 ;  1  Kings  viii.  lU. 


106      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

literature,  the  '  glory '  of  Yahweh  is  often  a  fiery  appear- 
ance ;  1  beyond  the  Umits  of  the  Old  Testament  it  becomes 
the  'Shechinah',  the  Light  of  God's  presence.^ 

The  second  type  of  Old  Testament  theophany  is  afforded 
by  '  the  angel  of  Yahweh'.  This  remarkable  figure,  who 
appears  in  the  earHer  narratives,  is  not  to  be  confused 
with  any  of  the  later  'angels'.  They  are  clearly  dis- 
tinguished from  Yahweh,  and  subordinated  to  Him,  but 
this  theophanic  figure  is  frequently  identified  with  Yahweh, 
as  when  '  the  angel  of  God '  says  to  Jacob,  '  I  am  the 
God  of  Bethel '.3  At  other  times,  probably  representing 
a  somewhat  later  stage  of  thought,  there  is  a  measure  of 
distinction  from  Yahweh,  as  in  the  case  of  the  '  angel ' 
sent  from  Sinai  to  be  Israel's  guide  to  Canaan,  and  Yahweh's 
representative.  Yet,  even  in  this  case,  Yahweh  is  present 
in  His  'messenger',  for  it  is  said,  'My  name  is  in  him'.* 
Thus,  the  'angel  of  Yahweh'  may  be  described  as  'an 
occasional  manifestation  of  Yahwe  in  human  form, 
possessing  no  distinct  and  permanent  personaHty  but 
speaking  and  spoken  of,  at  times  as  Yahwe  Himself  .  .  . 
at  times  as  distinct  from  Him  '.^  The  figure  of  this  '  angel ' 
marks  the  growing  recognition  of  the  truth  that  the  vision 
of  God  Himself  is  too  terrible  for  human  eyes  :  '  man  shall 
not  see  me  and  five'.®  But  we  must  not  fall  into  the 
error  of  tracing  this  to  any  metaphysical  ground.  It 
is  not  actually  impossible  to  see  God  in  realistic  fashion, 
for,  as  an  exceptional  case,  it  is  recorded  that  Moses  and 
others  saw  the  God  of  Israel,  without  His  hand  being 
laid  upon  them.'     Such  a  story  as  that  of  Jacob's  struggle 

1  Ezek.  i.  4,  x.  4,  etc.  ;  Ex.  xxiv.  17  (P). 

2  Cf.  (for  this  later  usage)  Dante's  symbolism  in  Par.  xxxiii.  115  f. 

3  Gen,  xxxi.  11, 13.  '  In  all  the  old  accounts  of  such  appearances  themaZ'aJfe 
is,  fir.st  or  last,  identified  with  the  deity'  (Moore,  Judges,  p.  183). 

*  Ex.  xxiii.  21  ;  cf.  Is.  xxx.  27.  The  conception  of  the  'name'  as  a  partial 
manifestation  of  the  personality  is  frequent  in  primitive  thought ;  the  goddess 
Astarte  is  called  the  '  Name  of  Baal '.  With  Ex.  xxxiii.  14  ('  My  face  shall  go 
with  thee')  cf.  the  title  of  the  goddess  Tanith,  '  Face  of  Baal'. 

5  Gray,  E.  Bi.,  col.  5035.  6  Ex.  xxxiii.  20. 

'  Ex.  xxiv.  9  f. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  107 

with  God  at  Peniel  is  full  of  the  deepest  moral  and  spiritual 
suggestiveness  for  the  modern  mind.  But  we  can  hardly 
exaggerate  the  crude  realism  of  its  original  meaning,  and 
of  the  words,  '  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face,  and  my  life 
is  preserved  '.^ 

(6)  A  miracle  for  the  Hebrew  mind  is  what  its  etymology 
ought  to  imply  to  us  ;  it  is  simply  '  something  wonderful ' 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  observer,  not  by  comparison 
with  any  estabhshed  natural  order  existing  in  quasi- 
independence  of  God.  '  Every  event  in  Nature  is  looked 
at  merely  as  a  single  act  of  God's  free  will,  rain  and  sun- 
shine as  well  as  earthquake  and  prodigy  '.^  Accordingly, 
what  the  Hebrew  mind  regards  as  a  miracle  ^ — a  wonder- 
ful manifestation  of  the  divine  presence — may  or  may  not 
be  a  miracle  according  to  the  popular  meaning  of  the 
word  to-day.  The  Hebrew  could  regard  the  drowning 
of  the  Egyptians  in  the  Red  Sea  and  the  speaking  of 
Balaam's  ass  as  both  miracles;  whereas  the  first  would 
ordinarily  be  explained  to-day  as  a  '  natural '  event  due 
to  meteorological  causes,  and  the  second  as  a  piece  of  un- 
natural folk-lore.  The  fact  is,  that  we  apply  to  all  events 
a  standard  which  did  not  exist  for  the  Hebrew — the 
standard  of  an  established  natural  order,  which  by  no 
means  excludes  what  is  ordinarily  called  the  miraculous, 
when  this  is  understood  to  be  the  manifestation  of  a  not 
less  estabhshed  spiritual  order.  It  should  be  noted  that 
'  miracles ',  in  the  Old  Testament,  are  not  confined  to 
Yahweh  and  Yahweh's  servants,*  and  that  the  mere 
abihty  to  work  a  miracle  is  not  held  to  prove  prophetic 

1  Gen.  xxxii,  30. 

2  Schultz,  Old  Testament  Theology,  E.T.,  ii.  p.  192. 

3  The  word  'miracle'  is  not  used  in  the  PwV.,  but  in  the  A.V.  it  trans- 
lates  three  Hebrew  terms,  viz.  niphWoth  (wonderful  acts,  Jiiri.  yi.  13), 
mopheih  (a  portent  or  extraordinary  event,  Ex.  vii.  9),  and  'ot/i,  '  a  sign,  i.e. 
something,  ordinary  (Ex.  xii.  13,  xxxi.  13  ;  Is.  xx.  3,  etc.)  or  extraordinary, 
as  the  case  may  be,  regarded  as  significant  of  a  truth  beyond  itself,  or 
impressed  with  a  Divine  purpose'  (Driver,  Deuteronomy,  on  iv.  34). 

4  Cf.  those  of  the  Egyptian  magicians  (Ex.  vii.  11,  12) ;  note,  also,  those  of 
the  opponents  of  Jesus  (Luke  xi.  19). 


108     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

inspiration  and  veracity.^  On  the  other  hand,  even  so 
spiritual  a  prophet  as  Isaiah  is  so  confident  of  the  imme- 
diate support  of  Yahweh  as  to  offer  to  Ahaz  any  sign  the 
king  may  choose  in  confirmation  of  the  prophet's  word.^ 
To  the  prophets,  indeed,  the  whole  history  of  Israel  is  a 
continuous  miracle,  though  particular  events  stand  out 
from  the  rest  because  of  their  striking  nature,  or  pecuhar 
significance. 

(c)  The  simplest  form  of  oracular  guidance  is  illustrated 
by  the  sign  asked  by  Eliezer  as  an  indication  of  the  divinely 
appointed  wife  for  Isaac  ;  she  is  to  be  the  maiden  who  offers 
drink  for  his  camels  as  well  as  for  himself.^  Or  the  sign 
may  be  something  abnormal,  such  as  the  condition  of 
Gideon's  fleece.*  Peculiar  means  of  divination  were 
employed  in  early  times,  such  as  the  divining-cup  of 
Joseph,^  the  resort  of  Saul  to  the  spirit  of  Samuel,^  the 
sound  of  the  wind  in  trees,'  etc.  In  the  Deuteronomic 
reformation,  however,  the  official  use  by  the  priests  of 
the  sacred  lot,  known  as  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  sur- 
vived to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  methods  of  obtaining 
guidance  from  the  spiritual  world. ^  The  nature  of  this 
practice  is  best  illustrated  by  the  Greek  version  of  1  Samuel 
xiv.  41,  which  here  preserves  the  original  of  the  now 
mutilated  Hebrew  text :  '  And  Saul  said,  Yahweh,  God 
of  Israel,  why  hast  Thou  not  answered  Thy  servant  to-day  ? 
is  the  wrong  in  me  or  in  Jonathan  my  son  ?  Yahweh, 
God  of  Israel,  give  Urim  ;  and  if  thus  Thou  say,  give  to 
Thy  people  Israel,  give  Thummim '.  This  shows  that  the 
oracle  simply  settled  the  alternatives  which  were  put 
before  it.  The  Urim  and  Thummin  are  employed  in 
connection  with  the  ephod,  which  is  usually  understood 

1  Dei;t.  xiii.  If.  2  ig.  vii.  11. 

8  Gen.  xxiv.  12  f,  ;  cf.  1  Sam.  xiv.  10  f.  Even  a  chance  word  might  yield 
an  omen  (1  Kings  xx.  33,  R.V.  mar.). 

4  Jud.  vi.  36-40.  5  Gen.  xliv.  5,  15. 

«  1  Sara,  xxviii.  7  f .  '2  Sam.  v.  24. 

«  Deut.  xviii.  10,  11. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  109 

to  be  some  form  of  image  of  Yahweh  ;  ^  appeal  to  this 
kind  of  oracle  is  frequent  in  the  early  period,  but  was  not 
available  at  the  Return,^  and  cannot  be  proved  for  the 
post-exilic  period.  To  this  or  some  similar  method  of 
casting  lots,  either  at  a  sanctuary  or  in  some  solemn  ritual, 
are  to  be  referred  various  other  instances  of  resort  to  an 
oracle  of  Yahweh  in  connection  with  the  guidance  of 
military  movements,  the  selection  of  a  king,  discovery  of 
the  cause  of  a  f amine. ^  Parallel  with  this  official  use  of 
the  sacred  lot,  we  have  also  to  remember  the  frequent 
cases  in  which  dreams  are  made  the  channel  of  some 
divine  communication,  especially  in  connection  with  a 
sanctuary.^  It  was  a  widespread  ancient  practice  to  sleep 
in  some  holy  place  or  temple,  and  to  regard  any  dream 
that  came  as  a  divine  revelation.  On  many  occasions 
Yahweh  is  said  to  have  revealed  Himself  or  His  purposes 
in  dreams,  as  when  He  warns  Laban  and  Abimelech,  or 
foretells  the  future  to  Pharaoh  and  to  Joseph,  or  calls 
Samuel,  or  encourages  Gideon  through  the  dream  of  the 
Midianite.^  The  psychological  conditions  of  dreaming — 
the  passivity  of  the  sleeper,  the  disregard  of  temporal 
and  spatial  Hmitations,  the  unconscious  reproduction  of 
the  dreamer's  own  thoughts  as  though  spoken  by  another, 
and  in  some  cases  the  actual  intensification  of  psychical 
activity  in  dream-states — have  made  dreams  a  favourite 
channel  of  revelation  amongst  many  peoples.  The  most 
vivid  account  of  the  dream-state  as  revelation  is  that 
given  by  EUphaz  in  the  Book  of  Job  (iv.  13  f.)  : 

'  In  thoughts  from  the  visions  of  the  night, 
When  deep  sleep  falleth  on  men, 

1  This  is  doubtful ;  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  ephod  was  a  'special 
development  of  the  primitive  loin-cloth ',  with  phallic  associations  (see  Foote 
in  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  xxi.  (1902),  pp.  1-47). 

2  Ezra  ii.  63. 

3  Jud.  i.  1  f.,  cf.  xviii.  5,  6  ;  1  Sam.  x.  22 ;  2  Sam.  xxi.  1  f. 
■*  1  Kings  iii.  5,  ix.  2 ;  cf.  Gen.  xxviii.  12. 

5  Gen.  xxxi.  24,  xx.  3  f.,  xli.  1  f.,  xxxvii.  5-10:  1  Sam.  iii.  3  f.  ;  Jud.  vii. 
13  f. 


110     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Fear  came  upon  me  and  trembling, 

Which  made  all  my  bones  to  shake. 

Then  a  breath  passed  over  my  face ; 

The  hair  of  my  flesh  stood  up. 

It  stood  still,  but  I  could  not  discern  the  appearance  thereof  j 

A  form  was  before  mine  eyes  : 

There  was  silence,  and  I  heard  a  voice '. 

(d)  In  regard  to  the  early  ideas  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
the  Christian  suggestions  of  moral  and  spiritual  meaning 
must  not  be  read  into  a  phenomenon  which  was  more  or 
less  physically  conceived.  The  ancient  Hebrew,  like  the 
nomadic  Arab  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  ascribed  to 
an  invasive  spirit  those  phenomena  of  human  personaHty 
which  he  could  not  otherwise  explain.  But,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  all  these  influences  from  without  which  act 
on  man  are  more  or  less  subordinated  to  Yah  web,  the 
ultimately  supreme  power  in  Hebrew  experience.  Just 
as  the  mysterious  'wind'  is  one  of  His  instruments,  so 
the  '  spirit '  is  another.  Both  are  denoted  by  the  same 
word  in  Hebrew,  for  both  are  energies  much  akin  in  their 
effects,  especially  to  those  who  have  not  learnt  to  dis- 
tinguish clearly  between  the  physical  and  the  psychical 
worlds.  A  man  who  is  influenced  by  angry  excitement, 
by  mad  impulses,  by  ecstatic  tendencies,  usually  shows 
his  psychical  condition  by  his  physical  state,  as  by  pant- 
ing, gasping,  etc.  The  Hebrew  seems  in  this  way  to  have 
connected  the  '  blowing '  of  the  wind  without,  and  the 
'  blowing '  of  the  wind- like  spirit  within.  Consequently,  the 
Hebrew  referred  to  the  direct  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
the  passionate  indignation  through  which  Saul  roused 
Israel  against  the  Ammonites,  the  superhuman  strength 
by  which  Samson  tore  a  young  Hon  to  pieces  with  his 
hands,  the  trumpet-note  of  Gideon  against  the  Midianites 
and  Amalekites.^  The  transitory  madness  of  Saul  is 
ascribed  to  'an  evil  spirit  from  Yahweh '.^  Similarly, 
1  1  Sam.  xi.  6 ;  Jud.  xiv.  6,  vi.  34.  2  i  Sam.  xvi.  14. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  HI 

the  ecstatic  conditions  of  early  '  prophecy',  the  abnormal 
state  in  which  the  early  prophet  chanted  his  message,  is 
traced  to  the  Spirit  of  Yahweh,  as  we  see  in  the  narrative 
of  Saul's  meeting  with  the  wandering  band  of  these 
prophets ;  ^  he  caught  the  contagion  of  their  influence, 
and  displayed  the  same  physical  and  psychical  excite- 
ment. In  process  of  time,  anything  remarkable  in  a 
man's  conduct  or  ability,  quite  apart  from  the  exhibi- 
tion of  passionate  excitement,  comes  to  be  traced  to  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Joseph  is  described  as  '  a  man  in  whom 
the  Spirit  of  God  is',  apparently  with  reference  to  his 
skill  in  the  interpretation  of  dreams  ;  the  spirit  of  wisdom 
in  Joshua  is  mediated  through  the  lajdng  on  of  the  hands 
of  Moses ;  whilst,  in  post-exilic  writings,  even  the  remark- 
able skill  of  an  artificer  is  thought  to  be  the  result  of 
inspiration.^  Thus,  by  the  time  of  Ezekiel,  we  find  the 
idea  of  the  Spirit  of  God  appHed  to  ethical  and  spiritual 
characteristics,  in  accordance  with  the  new  idea  of  the 
divine  character.  Not  only  does  Ezekiel  think  of  the 
nation  as  brought  to  life  again  from  its  valley  of  dry  bones, 
but  he  looks  for  supernatural  aid  in  the  creation  of  a  new 
character  within  those  who  shall  five  as  Yahweh  requires  ; 
this  character  he  ascribes  to  the  Spirit  of  God.^  But 
such  ideas  were  not  attained  in  the  earlier  period,  during 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  is  a  quasi-material  energy  produc- 
ing results  in  human  lives  that  have  nothing  essentially 
ethical  or  rehgious  in  their  content.  How  material- 
istic this  conception  is  may  be  seen  from  the  narrative 
which  describes  the  transference  to  the  seventy  elders  of 
a  portion  of  the  Spirit  given  to  Moses,  or  from  the  prayer 
of  Elisha  for  an  eldest  son's  portion  of  Elijah's  spirit.* 

In  this  review  of  the  four  principal  waj^s  in  which  Yahweh 
is  conceived  to  approach  man  in  the  pre-prophetic  rehgion 

1  1  Sam.  X.  5  f. ;  cf.  xix.  20  f. 

2  Gen.  xli.  38  ;  Deut.  xxxiv.  9  ;  Ex.  xxviii.  3. 

8  xi.  19,  xxxvi.  26,  xxxix.  29.  •*  Num.  xi.  25 ;  2  Kings  ii.  9, 15. 


112      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

of  Israel,  their  distinct  limitations,  as  media  of  revela- 
tion, have  been  made  apparent.  Theophanies  in  the 
human  form  belong  to  the  more  naive  anthropomorphism 
which  was  eventually  left  behind ;  in  the  form  of  natural 
phenomena  they  were  inadequate  to  the  advancing  needs 
of  the  religion.  A  '  miracle '  would  reveal  much  or  Httle 
according  to  its  interpretation  ;  however  wonderful  its 
circumstances,  a  prophet  was  needed  to  point  its  moral. 
Oracles  might  give  practical  guidance,  but  their  scope 
was  obviously  Hmited,  and  they  easily  became,  in  their 
chief  forms,  mere  weapons  of  the  hierarchy.  The  idea 
of  the  Spirit  of  Yahweh  does  not,  in  its  earher  history, 
rise  essentially  above  the  level  of  Semitic  animism.  So 
far,  there  is  nothing  commensurate  with  the  unique  power 
of  Israel's  reUgion,  and  with  the  wealth  of  the  content 
of  its  revelation  of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were 
possibiHties  even  in  these  ways  of  conceiving  His  approach 
which  were  destined  to  become  actuahties  when  employed 
in  the  service  of  higher  ideas,  and  especially  when  supple- 
mented by  a  new  and  incomparably  greater  channel  of 
communication.  That  new  channel  is  the  prophetic 
consciousness,  in  the  higher  meaning  of  the  term — rising 
above  the  ecstatic  frenzy  and  ravings  of  abnormal  psychical 
states,  into  the  sane,  steady,  moral  consciousness  of  God, 
and  the  confidence  that  through  moral  fellowship  with 
Him  He  gives  His  divine  message.  The  material  medium 
is  largely  replaced  by  a  spiritual ;  the  indirect  relation- 
ship by  one  that  is  direct,  and  independent  of  artificial 
stimulus.^  A  vast  new  range  of  possibility  was  thrown 
open,  and  the  older  means  fell  into  a  subordinate  place. 
Theophany  and  occasional  miracle  were  replaced  by  a 
vision  of  history  as  the  revelation  of  God ;  oracles  and 
ecstasies  became  inadequate  to  hold  the  message  God 
might  send  by  the  whole  mental,  moral,  religious  con- 
sciousness of  a  prophet.  The  greatness  of  the  change  is 
1  Contrast  Elisha's  dependence  on  the  minstrel  in  2  Kings  iii.  15. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  113 

shown  by  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy  ^  which  contrasts 
the  augury  and  divination  of  other  nations  (to  which  the 
earher  ideas  of  Israel  are  so  closely  related)  with  revela- 
tion through  a  line  of  prophets,  following  in  the  footsteps 
of  Moses,  and  giving  reaUty  to  the  ideals  ascribed  to  his 
traditional  personaUty. 

2.  The  Prophetic  Consciousness 

The  cardinal  fact  of  the  prophetic  consciousness,  as  it 
is  displayed  in  Amos  and  his  great  successors,  is  the 
absolute  conviction  of  a  divine  call,  mission,  and  message. 
This  conviction  is  expressed  in  the  reiterated  formula  of 
introduction  to  what  is  said,  i.e.  *  Thus  saith  Yahweh ', 
or  the  equivalent  '  Utterance  of  Yahweh  '.  The  prophet 
is  convinced  that  he  stands  in  the  council  of  Yahweh,  and 
that  Yahweh  will  do  nothing,  but  He  revealeth  His  secret 
unto  His  servants  the  prophets.^  By  fideUty  to  the  highest 
truths,  the  prophet  becomes  the  mouth  of  Yahweh,^  and 
this  conception  is  well  illustrated  in  the  account  of  the 
relation  in  which  Aaron  stands  to  Moses  :  '  he  shall  be 
thy  spokesman  unto  the  people  ;  and  it  shall  come  to 
pass,  that  he  shall  be  to  thee  a  mouth,  and  thou  shalt  be 
to  him  as  God.  ...  I  have  made  thee  a  god  to  Pharaoh  : 
and  Aaron  thy  brother  shall  be  thy  prophet  '.*  Such 
language  gives  no  warrant  for  a  mechanical  theory  of 
inspiration.  Just  as,  for  Hebrew  psychology,  independent 
qualities,  psychical  and  moral,  belonged  to  the  different 
physical  organs,  such  as  the  mouth,  so  there  was  a  real 
contribution  to  the  divine  message  made  by  the  prophet 
himself  as  the  '  mouth '  of  God.  This,  indeed,  needs  no 
demonstration  to  any  one  who  approaches  the  prophetic 
writings  without  a  preconceived  theory.     The  message  of 

1  xviii.  14,  15.  2  jer.  xxiii.  18  ;  Amos  iii.  7. 

5  Jer.  XV.  19 :  *  if  thou  take  forth  the  precious  from  the  vile,  thou  shalt  be 
as  my  mouth'. 
4  Ex.  iv.  16,  vii.  1. 

H 


114     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

each  is  as  distinct  and  as  characteristic  as  are  the  circum- 
stances of  his  calL  Both  in  the  language  and  in  the  thought 
the  human  agent  is  visible.  In  what  way,  then,  are  we 
t®  conceive  that  approach  of  God  to  the  prophet  which 
constituted  him  what  he  claimed  to  be,  the  spokesman 
of  God  ? 

Three  contributory  elements  may  be  traced  in  the 
working  of  the  prophetic  consciousness.  (1)  Fellowship 
with  God  and  sympathy  with  man,  such  as  belong  to  the 
prophets  of  Israel,  imply  a  remarkable  development  of 
moral  and  spiritual  character.  (2)  The  origin  and  hterary 
records  of  Hebrew  prophecy  point  to  more  or  less  abnormal 
psychical  experience  as  its  frequent,  if  not  universal, 
accompaniment.  (3)  The  prophet's  own  explanation  of 
his  experience  was  necessarily  drawn  from  a  psychology 
differing  from  our  own  in  certain  important  features.  Of 
these  three  factors,  the  first  would  be  admitted  by  all. 
The  contents  of  the  great  prophetic  books  have  passed 
into  ciu'rent  coin  in  the  realm  of  morahty  and  religion ;  it 
is  obvious  that  the  men  through  w^hom  these  classical 
conceptions  were  created  must  have  been  men  under  the 
influence  of  the  ideals  they  present,  and  of  the  demands 
they  make.  It  is  not  less  clear,  especially  in  the  case  of 
those  prophets  in  whom  the  emotional  life  finds  fullest 
expression,  such  as  Hosea  and  Jeremiah,  that  they  felt 
the  profoundest  sympathy  with  the  nation  to  which  they 
belonged,  even  in  the  midst  of  their  denunciation  of  its 
conduct.  Thus  the  prophet  became  an  effective  Hnk 
between  God  and  Israel ;  the  current  of  divine  revelation 
flowed  because  there  was  contact  at  both  ends,  and  that 
contact  was  provided  by  a  personal  character  conspicuous 
for  obedience  to  God  and  for  sympathy  with  man.  The 
first  and  most  important  feature,  therefore,  in  the  prophetic 
consciousness  consisted  in  the  possession  to  an  eminent 
degree  of  the  same  quahties  and  characteristics  as,  in  all 
ages,  underUe  communion  with  God  and  service  to  men. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  115 

The  presence  of  the  second  element,  abnormal  psychical 
characteristics,  is  much  more  open  to  controversy,  and 
can  easily  be  misrepresented.  The  prophets  who  so  pro- 
foundly transformed  the  rehgion  of  Israel  and  of  the 
world  were  assuredly  not  men  of  unbalanced  mind.  But 
certain  features  of  the  prophetic  writings  do  seem  to  point 
to  an  intensity  of  psychical  experience,  and  therefore  of 
temperament,  which  distinguishes  the  prophets  generally 
from  other  men.  There  is  the  remarkable  sense  of  an 
external  compulsion,  felt  from  the  '  call '  onwards,  often 
urging  the  prophet  to  that  from  which  he  naturally  shrinks 
— a  compulsion  psychologically  due,  no  doubt,  to  the 
vivid  imagination  by  which  ideas  in  the  prophet's  mind 
acquired  objective  reahty,  independent  of  the  prophet's 
own  personaUty.  '  The  Lord  Yahweh  hath  spoken  ',  says 
Amos,  '  who  can  but  prophesy  ?  '  ^  Isaiah  writes,  '  Yahweh 
spake  thus  to  me  with  strength  of  hand  '.^  Jeremiah 
describes  the  divine  message  as  '  a  burning  fire '  within 
him,  which  is  irresistible. ^  On  the  other  hand,  the 
message  sought  is  sometimes  withheld.*  Further,  in  the 
case  of  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,^  their  call  to  ministry 
takes  the  form  of  a  vision,  their  account  of  which  seems 
to  be  more  than  a  device  of  exposition.  Some  of  the 
prophets,  e.g.  Amos  and  Zechariah,^  give  part  of  their 
message  in  the  form  of  sights  actually  presented  to  the 
eye  :  '  Thus  the  Lord  Yahweh  showed  me  ',  or  '  I  saw  in  the 
night '.  It  is  less  easy  to  show  that  the  prophets  beheved 
they  heard  external  voices.  But  when  we  remember 
such  experiences  as  are  described  by  Augustine  and 
Bunyan,'  experiences  even  occurring  to-day,  in  moments 
of  intense  feehng,  we  can  well  believe  that  the  prophets 
mean  much  more  by  such  a  phrase  as  '  The  voice  of  one 
saying.  Cry  \^  than  a  dramatic  figure  of  speech,  and  that 

1  iii.  8.  2  viii.  11.  8  XX.  9. 

<  Hab.  ii.  1 ;  Jer.  xlii.  7.  ^  is.  vi.  ;  Jer.  i.  ;  Ez.  i.-iii. 

^  Amos  vii.-ix. ;  Zecb.  i.  7  f. 

7  Confessions,  viii.  12;  Grace  Abounding,  §§  22,  174,  etc.  8  is.  xl.  3. 


116      EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

the  passionate  dialogues  between  Jeremiah  and  Yahweh 
are  not  simply  a  literary  fiction.  The  act  of  Isaiah  in 
'  walking  naked  and  barefoot  three  years  for  a  sign  and 
a  portent '  ^  suggests  a  close  parallel  in  the  case  of  George 
Fox,  who  put  off  his  shoes  outside  Lichfield  at  the 
Lord's  command,  and  saw  channels  of  blood  in  the 
streets  through  which  he  went  to  cry  '  Woe  to  the  bloody 
city  of  Lichfield  !  '  ^  The  abnormal  psychosis  is  surely 
present  in  both  cases.  Further,  in  the  case  of  Ezekiel, 
physical  phenomena  are  described  that  bear  some 
resemblance,  at  least,  to  catalepsy  :  he  remains  dumb  for 
seven  days  after  his  call ;  he  is  to  He  in  one  position 
for  a  lengthy  period ;  he  is  conscious  of  being  transported 
from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem,  that  he  might  describe  to  the 
elders  what  he  has  seen  in  the  temple,  apparently  during 
a  trance-state. 3  Such  phenomena  as  these,  of  course, 
no  more  discredit  the  inner  worth  of  the  prophetic  ideas 
than  the  eccentricities  of  genius  in  other  realms  discredit 
its  own  high  achievements.  But  they  do  suggest  that  the 
prophet  was  usually  distinguished  from  other  men  by  a 
peculiar  psychical  development.  These  abnormal  features 
must  not  be  exaggerated.  In  the  historical  result,  they 
are,  of  course,  a  quite  neghgible  feature.  But  they  help 
to  explain  the  status  of  the  prophet  for  the  common  people, 
and  the  prophet's  own  conviction  that  he  was  set  apart 
from  other  men.  This  conclusion  finds  some  measure  of 
confirmation  in  the  links  that  connect  the  prophecy  of 
the  eighth  century  with  that  earlier  ecstatic  prophesying 
ascribed  to  the  Spirit  of  Yahweh.  Psychopathic  features 
in  the  earfier  prophets  are  unmistakable,  as  when  the 
madness  of  Saul  is  described  by  the  same  word  as  that 

1  Is.  XX.  2.  3.  1  Journal,^  i.  p.  78. 

8  Ez.  iii.  14, 15 ;  iv.  4  ;  viii.-xi.  Cf.  Is.  xxi.  1-10  (Gray's  translation,  Comm., 
pp.  348  f.)  for  an  example  of  dual  personality  (verse  6)  in  the  prophetic 
consciousness.  The  Arabic  kahin,  or  'seer',  was  believed  to  have  an  in- 
dwelling demon,  who  addressed  the  seer  as  'thou'  (Wellhausen,  Reste, 
p.  135).  *  ' 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  117 

used  for  prophesying, ^  or  as  when  he  is  said  to  have  been 
infected  by  the  contagious  influence  of  the  prophets  at 
Ramah  :  '  And  he  also  stripped  off  his  clothes,  and  he 
also  prophesied  before  Samuel,  and  lay  down  naked  all 
that  day  and  all  that  night  '.^  The  difference  between 
the  earUer  and  later  phases  of  prophecy  in  Israel  is  that 
the  abnormal  was  driven  from  the  centre  to  the  circum- 
ference,^  and  subordinated  to  that  moral  and  spiritual 
message  which  became  the  prophet's  dominating  interest. 

The  third  contribution  to  the  prophetic  consciousness 
results  from  the  characteristics  of  Hebrew  psychology, 
in  particular  from  its  idea  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  is 
clear  that  a  prophet's  conception  of  his  own  personaHty, 
and  of  its  relation  to  God,  must  have  profoundly  affected 
his  interpretation  of  rehgious  experience.  A  modern 
behever  in  telepathy  is  ready  to  explain  a  given  fact  of 
consciousness,  especially  if  it  is  of  a  striking  nature,  as 
due  to  the  action  of  mind  other  than  his  own.  But  this 
accessibiHty  to  influences  other  than  those  acting  through 
the  ordinary  sense-organs  was  universally  recognised  by 
the  Hebrews.*  '^he  Hebrew  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
in  fact,  springs  from  the  attribution  of  all  such  external 
influences  to  Yahweh  as  their  source.  Anything  abnormal 
in  the  psychical  life  would  instinctively  be  referred  to 
Him,  and  dissociated  from  the  prophet's  own  personaHty. 
Indeed,  one  natural  consequence  of  the  prophet's  '  call ' 
would  be  that  even  quite  normal  elements  of  his  subse- 
quent consciousness  could  be  regarded  as  messages  of 
Yahweh.^  Some  of  the  details  of  Hebrew  psychology 
must  have  contributed  to  this  conviction.  We  have 
already  seen  that  the  Hebrew  did  not  think  of  himself 

1  1  Sam.  xviii.  10.  2  i  Sam.  xix.  24. 

3  Cf.  Sellin,  Die  alttest.  Religion,  p.  75.  ■*  See  chap.  iv.  §  1. 

5  It  may  be  the  earlier  '  ecstatic '  prophesying  of  '  men  of  the  Spirit'  which 
prevents  the  eighth-century  prophets  from  directly  ascribing  their  inspiration 
to  the  'Spirit'  of  God.  But  the  idea  is  really  implicit  in  their  claim  to 
prophesy,  and  it  reappears  explicitly  in  later  prophets,  e.g.  Ezekiel. 


118      KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

as  a  soul  within  a  body,  still  less  as  a  personality  with 
different  levels  of  consciousness.  The  unity  of  his  per- 
sonahty  lay  for  him  in  the  harmonious  working  of  a  number 
of  organs,  each  with  its  own  powers  ;  his  life  ended  when 
the  co-operation  ceased,  as  it  did  at  death.  But  not  less 
did  his  own  psychical  life  seem  temporarily  to  end,  when- 
ever one  of  his  organs  functioned  in  quasi-independence 
of  his  volition ;  for  the  time  being,  some  external  power 
had  taken  possession  of  it,  some  external  influence  was 
acting  upon  it.  Thus,  experiences  which  a  modern  mind 
would  ascribe  to  illusions  of  the  senses,  or  dual  person- 
ality, or  some  other  subjective  phenomenon,  would 
naturally  be  interpreted  as  direct  and  unmistakable 
communications  from  Yahweh.^  Given,  then,  the  two 
features  of  the  prophetic  consciousness  already  indicated 
— the  moral  and  spiritual  character,  and  the  sign  and  seal 
of  some  abnormal  psj^chical  experience — the  general 
psychological  atmosphere  of  the  age  enables  us  to  under- 
stand the  prophet's  '  Thus  saith  Yahweh ',  so  far  as  it 
can  be  understood  on  a  purely  scientific  and  historical 
level  of  inquiry.  But  such  an  analysis  of  the  prophetic 
consciousness  relates  only  to  the  subjective  origin,  not 
to  the  objective  value,  of  revelation.  It  professes  to  do  no 
more  than  to  show  how  the  prophet  of  Israel  could  believe 
in  all  sincerity  that  the  convictions  of  his  own  heart  were 
really  a  message  of  God  to  His  people.  The  fact  that  a 
modern  mind  would  explain  the  origin  of  such  convictions, 
and  their  psychical  accompaniments,  in  a  different  way, 
by  no  means  serves  to  invalidate  the  truth  of  this  belief. 
Psychological  analysis  of  the  prophetic  consciousness, 
however  successful,  simply  brings  us  to  the  threshold  of 
the  great  philosophical  problem — the  relation  of  human 
personaUty  to  the    divine.      Religious    experience    rests 

1  A  good  example  of  it  is  seen  in  the  supernatural  character  assigned  to 
dreams  (Dent.  xiii.  1  f . ;  1  Sam.  xxviii.  6, 15 ;  Joel  ii.  28  ;  Num.  xii.  6  f.).  The 
general  tendency  is  common  to  ancient  psychology  in  general. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  119 

on  the  assurance  that  the  relation  is  of  such  a  kind  that 
man  can  enjoy  the  fellowship  of  God,  and  that  God  draws 
near  to  man,  in  order  to  make  that  fellowship  possible. 
The  prophetic  consciousness  is  ultimately  a  pecuUar 
variety  of  religious  experience,  dedicated  to  great  ends, 
and  having  great  historic  results.  But  the  crowning 
mystery  of  personahty,  human  and  divine,  always  remains 
at  the  centre  of  this  experience,  and  evades  our  analysis. 

The  immediate  work  of  the  great  prophets  was  the 
interpretation  of  Israel's  history.  Under  the  guidance  of 
Israel's  God,  the  prophet  found  himself  brought  to  a 
vision  of  Israel's  history,  past,  present,  or  future,  which 
dominated  his  thought  and  shaped  his  message.  The 
course  of  events  visible  to  all  was  the  handwriting  of 
Yahweh,  which  it  was  the  prophet's  task  to  explain  to 
his  fellow-countrymen.  The  ultimate  test  of  prophecy 
was  its  conformity  with  actual  history.  To  this  con- 
firmation one  of  the  later  prophets  appeals,  when  he 
says,  '  My  words  and  my  statutes,  which  I  commanded 
my  servants  the  prophets,  did  they  not  overtake  your 
fathers  ?  '  ^  The  confident  assertions  of  the  prophets  in 
regard  to  current  events  would  be  inexplicable,  had  they 
not  felt  that  they  possessed  the  divine  secret  of  history, 
the  knowledge  of  the  principles  on  which  Yahweh  admin- 
istered the  government  of  the  world.  They  would  all 
of  them  have  been  prepared  to  stand  or  fall  by  the  ultimate 
agreement  of  their  utterances  with  Yahweh's  judgments. 
But  mere  agreement  between  a  prophetic  utterance  and 
external  happenings  was  not  accepted  as  proof  in  itself 
that  the  speaker  of  the  prophecy  was  a  genuine  man  of 
God.  Akeady  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  there  is 
reference  to  a  further  test,  which  springs  from  the  in- 
trinsic character  of  true  prophecy,  as  being  always  con- 
sistent with  the  revelation  given  in  the  past.  '  If  there 
arise  in  the  midst  of  thee  a  prophet,  or  a  dreamer 
1  Zech.  i.  6. 


120     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

of  dreams,  and  he  give  thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  and  the 
sign  or  wonder  come  to  pass,  whereof  he  spake  unto  thee, 
saying.  Let  us  go  after  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not 
known,  and  let  us  serve  them  ;  thou  shalt  not  hearken 
unto  the  words  of  that  prophet,  or  unto  that  dreamer  of 
dreams  :  for  Yahweh  your  God  proveth  you  \^  This  is  a 
logical  deduction  from  faith  in  God,  for  the  revelation 
He  gives  will  necessarily  be  self-consistent.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  recognised  prophets  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  those  who  are  called  '  false  '  is  due  to  something 
more  than  a  mere  'survival  of  the  fittest',  judged  by  the 
successful  anticipation  of  events.  There  exists  in  the 
minds  of  those  prophets  we  call  true  the  conviction  of 
an  intrinsic  difference  between  their  own  testimony  and 
that  which  they  condemn,  a  difference  which  events  will 
confirm,  not  create.  When  the  '  false '  prophets  foretell 
a  prosperous  campaign  for  Ahab  and  Jehoshaphat,  Micaiah 
at  first  mockingly  echoes  them.  But,  adjured  to  speak 
in  the  name  of  Yahweh,  he  declares  his  vision  of  a  king- 
less  army,  and  explains  the  prophecies  of  success  as  due 
to  the  inspiration  of  a  lying  spirit  commissioned  by 
Yahweh  to  entice  Ahab.^  Micaiah  is  ready  to  stand  or 
fall  by  the  result  of  the  campaign  :  '  If  thou  return  at 
all  in  peace,  Yahweh  hath  not  spoken  by  me'.  But  it 
is  not  less  clear  that  his  declared  conviction,  '  Yahweh 
hath  spoken  evil  concerning  thee ',  springs  from  his  per- 
sonal judgment  of  Ahab's  character  and  poHcy,  not,  as 
does  theirs,  from  the  mere  desire  to  please  the  king. 
The  presence  of  more  than  a  merely  external  criterion 
of  prophetic  truth  is  equally  apparent  in  the  story 
of  Jeremiah's  encounter  with  the  prophet  Hananiah. 
Jeremiah  meets  with  suspicion  this  man's  prophecy  of 
the  breaking  of  the  Babylonian  yoke  within  two  years. 

1  Deut.  xiii.  1-3.  But  disagreement  with  the  event  is  held  to  disprove  the 
alleged  prophecy  (Deut.  xviii.  21,  22). 

'•^  1  Kings  xxii.  1-28.  The  objectivity  of  their  inspiration,  it  should  be 
noted,  is  allowed  by  Micaiah. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  121 

His  suspicion  is  based  on  the  continuity  of  warning  in 
the  prophets  who  have  preceded  him.  Time  must  show, 
he  says,  whether  a  prophecy  of  peace  will  be  confirmed. 
But,  after  this  interview,  Jeremiah  receives  a  divine 
revelation  which  enables  him  to  encounter  Hananiah 
with  a  definite  denial  of  the  truth  of  his  words.  '  Yahweh 
hath  not  sent  thee  ;  but  thou  makest  this  people  to  trust 
in  a  lie'.^  This  narrative  not  only  illustrates  the  idea 
indicated  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  that  there  is  a 
certain  self-consistency  in  genuine  revelation,  but  also 
the  presence  of  a  common  moral  judgment  in  the  prophets 
as  a  whole,  prior  to  Jeremiah,  by  which  they  condemned 
the  spirit  of  their  times,  and  declared  its  penalty.  In 
this  sense  the  pre-exihc  prophets  were  pessimists,  but 
moral  pessimism  is  preferable  to  immoral  optimism. 
The  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  a  true  prophet  to  say  that 
Israel  had  received  of  Yahweh' s  hand  double  for  all  her 
sins.  When  that  time  did  come,  Deutero-Isaiah  was  not 
less  convinced,  whilst  saying  it,  that  '  he  stood  in  organic 
relationship  with  earHer  prediction '.^  The  claim  is 
justified,  if  the  predictive  element  in  Hebrew  prophecy 
is  a  product  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  insight  of  the 
prophets,  which  draws  different  consequences  for  different 
generations.  They  could  foretell  the  future  with  general, 
if  not  with  detailed  accuracy,  because  they  were  admitted 
to  the  council  of  Yahweh;  their  ears  were  trained  to 
catch,  in  the  music  of  the  universe,  the  moral  harmonies, 
the  discords,  and  the  resolutions  into  triumphant  chords. 
They  had  surrendered  their  hearts  to  the  moral  principles 
according  to  which  God  governs  the  world.  To  their 
passionate  confidence  in  the  victory  of  right  and  the 
overthrow  of  wrong,  the  Day  of  Yahweh  seemed  always 
at  the  gates,  and  the  final  consummation  already  begin- 

1  Jer.  xxviii.  15.    Cf.  Gressmann,  Der  Ursprung  der  isr.-jud.  Eschatologie, 

2  Duhm,  Jeremia,  p.  225.     Cf.,  e.g.,  Is,  xliv.  7,  8  :   'who,  as  I,  shall  call, 
and  shall  declare  it  ?  .  .  .  have  I  not  declared  unto  thee  of  old,  and  showed  it? ' 


122     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

ning.  The  problems  of  divine  government  were  sometimes 
more  complex  than  their  simple  principle  of  retribution 
allowed,  as  the  spiritual  agony  of  Job  was  to  demon- 
strate. But,  like  him,  they  built  their  faith  on  inner  con- 
viction, rather  than  on  outward  event.  The  true  prophet 
looks  for  confirmation  and  final  justification  on  the  arena 
of  history,  as  the  true  artist  may  look  for  the  world's 
ultimate  approval  of  his  work.  But  both  prophet  and 
artist  have  learnt  to  look  beyond  the  changing  processes 
of  time  into  the  unchanging  realms  of  truth  and  beauty, 
which  time  exists  to  serve. 

The  religion  of  the  prophetic  consciousness  must  always 
have  been  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  The  pro- 
phetic Hterature  is  itseK  evidence  of  the  prophets'  failure 
to  raise  their  nation  to  their  own  high  level.  The  change 
from  oral  to  written  prophecy,  which  practically  begins 
in  the  eighth  century,  seems  to  have  been  due  to  the 
failure  of  the  prophets  to  shape  national  thought  and 
conscience  to  their  high  ideals.  This  is  indicated  clearly 
enough  by  the  prophets  themselves.  Isaiah  is  bidden 
take  a  great  tablet  and  write  upon  it  with  the  pen  of  a 
man  the  symbolical  name  of  his  son  as  a  testimony  to 
the  future  ;  one  of  his  prophecies  he  is  ordered  to  inscribe 
in  a  book,  that  it  may  be  a  perpetual  witness  to  a  later 
age.^  Only  after  twenty-two  years  of  oral  prophecy  is 
Jeremiah  bidden  to  write  on  a  roll  the  messages  he  has 
dehvered  throughout  the  whole  time  to  his  fellow-country- 
men, '  that  they  may  return  every  man  from  his  evil  way'.^ 
It  is  in  harmony  with  Israel's  spiritual  mission,  and  with 
the  Cross  which  was  its  supreme  achievement,  that  its 
greatest  literary  product  was  the  offspring  of  defeat. 
Nations,  like  individuals,  have  great  creative  epochs. 
Thought   and   feeling   are   usually   sublimated    to    their 

1  Is.  viii.  1,  XXX.  8  (R.V.  mar.) ;  cf.  also  viii.  16,  though  the  terms  in  this 
case  may  be  figurative. 

2  Jer.  xxxvi.  1  f. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  123 

highest  possibilities  through  national  victories,  expand- 
ing horizons,  the  exalted  vision  of  great  destinies.  The 
golden  age  of  a  literature  is  thus  the  age  of  Pericles, 
Augustus,  EHzabeth.  But  the  golden  age  of  Israel's 
hterature,  the  period  to  which  we  owe  the  great  pro- 
phetic records,  did  not  fall  during  the  national  ascendancy 
under  David  and  Solomon.  It  was  thrown  into  relief 
by  the  dark  background  of  Ass5rrian  and  Babylonian 
empire,  and  the  prophets  who  occupy  its  foreground  were 
men  who  carried  the  cross  of  lonely  obedience  to  a  Calvary 
of  apparent  failure. 


3.  The  Written  Word 

The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  have  gained  a 
unique  authority  over  both  Jew  and  Christian  as  being 
the  Word  of  God,  the  disclosure  of  the  divine  nature  and 
will  through  self-revealing  grace.  This  canonical  authority, 
whether  recognised  or  rejected,  must  be  clearly  distin- 
guished from  the  intrinsic  character  of  the  Uterature. 
The  history  of  Old  Testament  Hterature  begins  in  the 
twelfth  century,  but  that  of  the  Canon  in  the  seventh. ^ 
It  was  in  the  year  621  B.C.  that,  for  the  first  time,  a  portion 
of  the  literature  of  the  Old  Testament  acquired  a  recog- 
nised public  place  as  a  divine  revelation.  This  was  the 
central  part  of  the  present  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  The 
second  step  in  the  formation  of  the  Canon  was  taken  in 
444  B.C.,  when  the  Law-book  brought  by  the  scribe  Ezra 
from  Babylon  was  solemnly  accepted  by  the  new  com- 
munity as  its  divinely  ordained  basis.  This  seems  to 
have  been  what  is  known  as  the  Priestly  Code,  of  which 
the  Book  of  Leviticus  may  be  taken  as  representative. 
Within  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth  century,  i.e.  by  about 

1  For  an  account  of  the  literature  prior  to  the  beginnings  of  the  Canon 
(songs,  laws,  histories,  prophecies),  see  Ryle,  The  Canon  of  the  Old  Testa. 
ment,  chap.  i. 


124      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

400  B.c.,^  this  Law-book  was  combined  with  the  ah-eady 
canonised  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  with  other  not  yet 
canonised  Hterature  of  still  earlier  date,  deahng  with 
Israel's  origins,  to  form  the  Pentateuch,  or,  to  use  the 
Jewish  name,  the  Law.^  This  is  the  basis  of  Judaism. 
No  other  part  of  the  Old  Testament  ever  equalled  the  Law 
in  authority,  though  prophetic  writings  (with  certain 
histories)  were  collected  by  about  200  B.C.,  to  form  a 
second  part  of  the  Canon,  and  the  remainder  of  the  present 
Old  Testament  shortly  before  the  rise  of  the  New,  to  form 
a  third  part,  known  as  the  '  Writings  '. 

From  this  outhne  of  the  history  of  the  Canon,  it  is 
apparent  that  the  priest,  rather  than  the  prophet,  was 
the  actual  centre  around  which  the  authoritative  Scrip- 
tures gathered.  This  is  partly  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  priestly  oracle  was  a  source  of  divine  revelation  from 
the  earhest  days,  and  that  the  estabhshed  ceremonial 
of  rehgion  aroused  continuous  reverence  cumulatively 
greater  than  that  inspired  by  any  single  prophet.  Yet 
the  prophet  contributed  very  materially  to  the  creation 
of  the  Law.  In  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  the  old 
priestly  law  and  the  new  prophetic  teaching  have  mingled 
their  strongly  contrasted  influences  to  work  together  for 
the  reformation  of  Israel's  rehgion.  This  seventh-century 
work  could  not  have  been  so  shaped  but  for  the  prophetic 
teaching  of  the  century  before  it ;  but  neither  would  there 
have  been  material  to  shape,  nor  the  motive  to  ascribe 
it  to  Moses,  but  for  the  immemorial  law  and  ritual  which 

1  The  Samaritan  and  Hebrew  Pentateuchs  practically  agree,  and  the  final 
separation  of  the  two  peoples  is  usually  supposed  to  have  taken  place  towards 
the  close  of  the  fifth  century.  But  Josephus  places  it  about  330,  and  the 
Elephantine  Papyri  suggest  that  in  408  there  was  no  Samaritan  high  priest 
(see  Steuernagel,  Theologische  Studieii  und  Kritiken,  1909,  p.  5  ;  Bertholet, 
Bib.  Theologie,  p.  28). 

2  The  successive  Codes  which  constitute  it  were  originally  meant  to  replace 
each  other,  so  that  the  inconsistencies  apparent  to  us  were  hardly  felt, 
especially  as  few  could  have  access  to  the  written  documents.  When  the 
combination  of  the  Coles  was  ultimately  made,  each  possessed  authority,  and 
editorial  revision  suflaciently  disguised  the  differences. 


▼.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  125 

centred  round  Solomon's  Temple.  Priest  and  prophet 
met  again  in  the  person  of  Ezekiel.  We  have  only  to 
compare  the  sacerdotal  ideals  he  records  in  the  last  section 
of  his  book  with  the  Levitical  '  Law  of  Holiness '  (Lev. 
xvii.-xxvi.)  to  see  how  much  a  prophet  could  contribute 
to  the  making  of  the  Law.  Even  the  interminable  descrip- 
tion of  the  sanctuary  in  the  Book  of  Exodus  is  but  the 
appHcation  in  detail  of  Isaiah's  words  :  '  Great  is  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel  in  the  midst  of  thee  '.^ 

The  constituents  of  the  Law  are  very  varied.  It  con- 
tains song  and  story  as  well  as  sermon,  myth  and  legend 
as  well  as  law,  and  this  variety  of  its  contents  must  be 
remembered  in  order  to  account  for  the  wonderful  fascina- 
tion and  influence  which  the  Law  has  been  able  to  exert 
over  so  many  generations.  But  the  priestly  editors  to 
whom  its  final  form  is  due  have  given  it  a  certain  syste- 
matic unity,  springing  from  their  theory  of  divine  revela- 
tion. They  conceive  that  revelation  to  be  made  and 
confirmed  by  a  series  of  covenants,  the  last  and  greatest 
being  that  of  Sinai,  when  God  gave  to  Israel  through 
Moses,  in  the  ordinances  of  the  sanctuary,  knowledge 
of  His  requirements.  It  is  in  these  ordinances  that  the 
priestly  interest  lies.  Such  connective  history  as  they 
supply,  whilst  incorporating  the  more  naive  and  human 
stories  of  the  past,  dwells  lovingly  on  the  institutions  of 
Israel  and  their  supposed  origin.  They  think  of  God 
as  brought  near  to  man  through  the  institutions  of  the 
sanctuary  of  the  desert,  which  is  idealised  into  the  pattern 
of  the  existent  temple.  *  There  I  will  meet  with  the 
children  of  Israel ;  and  it  shall  be  sanctified  by  my  Glory. 2 
And  I  will  sanctify  the  tent  of  meeting  and  the  altar  : 

1  Is.  lii.  6.  *  Ezra's  Law  did  not  materialise  the  worship  except  in  relation 
to  US,  80  to  speak,  and  not  in  comparison  with  what  had  existed  previously 
.  .  .  there  never  was  any  prophetical  religion,  but  only  a  criticism  by  the 
prophets  of  a  worship  thoroughly  engrained  with  idolatry  and  superstition' 
(Loisy,  The  Religion  of  Israel,  E.T.,  p.  211). 

2  I.e.  the  luminous  Presence  of  God,  as  noticed  in  §  1  (a)  of  this  chapter. 


126      KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

Aaron  also  and  his  sons  will  I  sanctify,  to  minister  to  me 
in  the  priest's  office.  And  1  will  dwell  among  the  children 
of  Israel,  and  will  be  their  God  \^ 

The  sanctuary  alone  would  simply  have  continued  and 
developed  those  ideas  of  holy  places,  seasons,  and  persons 
which  will  be  considered  (from  the  standpoint  of  man's 
approach  to  God)  in  the  following  chapter.  The  new 
feature  due  to  the  Written  Word  was  that  the  worship 
of  the  temple  was  now  conceived  to  rest  on  a  closely-knit 
series  of  divine  commands,  a  full  and  expUcit  statement 
given  by  God  to  His  servant  Moses  of  the  conditions  to 
be  satisfied,  in  order  that  Israel  might  become  a  holy 
people.  Revelation  was  no  longer  the  spoken  word  of  the 
prophet ;  it  was  the  written  word  of  the  Law.  With  the 
introduction  of  that  Law,  prophecy  disappears  except  in 
the  form  of  anonymous  hterature.^  That  immediate 
fellowship  with  God  through  moral  and  spiritual  char- 
acter, which  is  the  glory  of  the  great  prophets,  is  replaced 
by  a  prescribed  knowledge  of  His  will,  a  formulated 
statement  of  His  requirements  for  all  time.  Revelation 
is  a  great  fact  still,  but  it  is  thrown  out  of  the  Hving  present 
into  the  dead  past.  In  that  past  God  speaks  with  Moses 
'  mouth  to  mouth,  plainly  and  not  in  riddles,  and  the  form 
of  Yahweh  he  beholds  '.^  But  now  He  speaks  through  the 
words  He  gave  to  Moses,  and  His  will  must  be  ascertained 
by  dihgent  study  of  the  Law.  The  inevitable  adjustment 
of  that  revelation  of  the  past  to  the  ever-changing  needs 
of  the  present  ultimately  brought  in  the  artificial  and 
casuistical  labours  of  the  scribes.  The  very  conception 
that  God  had  spoken  once  for  all  in  the  Law  removed 
Him  further  off  from  the  ordinary  worshipper,  and  in 
combination    with    other    influences,    yielded    the    post- 

1  Ex.  xxix.  43  f. ;  described  by  Driver  (Literature  of  the  Old  T4siament, 
p.  129)  as  *  the  culminating  promise '  of  the  Priestly  Narrative. 

2  Cf.  Neh.  vi.  14,  Zech.  xiii.  1-6,  for  significant  side-lights  on  the  decline  and 
fall  of  prophecy. 

3  Num.  xii.  8. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  127 

exilic  idea  of  the  transcendent  God,  who  deals  with  His 
world  only  through  the  agency  of  innumerable  inter- 
mediate beings. 

The  angelology  which  arose  to  satisfy  this  new 
need  largely  belongs  to  post-canonical  Judaism,  which 
beHeves  that  God  deals  with  men  and  nations  through 
a  vast  hierarchy  of  angels.  But  the  Old  Testament 
sufficiently  illustrates  the  general  character  of  this  con- 
ception. Angels  already  begin  to  appear  in  the  later 
prophets,  viz.  Ezekiel  and  Zechariah  ;  ^  in  fact,  Zechariah's 
visions  are  controlled  by  angels.  In  the  Book  of  Daniel, 
the  heathen  gods  have  been  transformed  into  angehc 
chiefs  or  princes  who  superintend  their  respective  nations. 
Israel  falls  to  the  share  of  Michael.^  The  office  of  revealer 
to  Daniel  is  discharged  by  Gabriel.^  The  Law  itself  is 
ultimately  beHeved  to  have  been  given  through  the  agency 
of  angels,  as  is  shown  by  various  passages  in  the  New 
Testament  and  in  Apocryphal  Hterature.*  In  contrast 
with  such  elaborate  mediation,  the  New  Testament  pro- 
claims a  direct  communion  with  God  through  Christ. 
This  contrast  must  be  remembered  if  we  are  to  reahse 
the  impression  made  on  the  Judaism  of  New  Testament 
times  by  such  words  as  '  Our  fellowship  is  with  the 
Father,  and  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  '.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  recognised  that  the  earher 
Judaism,  at  least,  was  not  conscious  that  any  barrier 
between  man  and  God  had  been  created  by  the  Revelation 
of  the  Law.  Some  of  the  Psalms  describe  the  Law  in  terms 
of  the  warmest  devotion  and  the  most  sincere  enthusiasm. 
The  Law  is  a  Hfe-giving  stream  to  those  who  meditate  on 
it  day  and  night.     It  is  more  desirable  than  gold,  sweeter 

1  Ezek.  ix.  ;  Zech.  i.  9,  etc. 

2  Dan.  xii.  1 ;  cf.  x.  13,  and  the  Greek  version  of  Deut,  xxxii.  8,  9. 

3  viii.  16,  ix.  21. 

4  Acts  vii.  53  ;  Gal.  iii.  19  ;  Heb.  ii.  2 ;  see  also  Charles's  note  on  JubUeet, 

i-27.  ..... 

5  1  John  i.  8  ;  cf.  Heb.  iv.  14  f.,  x.  19  f.,  for  the  corresponding  directness 
of  man's  approach  to  God. 


128     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

than  honey.  It  is  a  lamp  to  men's  feet,  a  song  for  their 
pilgrimage.^  In  the  Maccabsean  Revolt,  Judas  and  his 
followers  lay  before  God  a  copy  of  His  holy  Law  which 
the  heathen  have  desecrated,  that  they  may  move  Him  to 
action ;  to  possess  a  copy  meant  death  at  the  hands  of 
the  persecutors.2  The  Law  was  the  charter  of  Judaism,  the 
real  source  of  its  strength  through  the  many  centuries. 
The  institutions  which  it  enjoined  were,  in  large  measure, 
brought  to  an  end  in  a.d.  70  ;  but  the  Law  showed  its 
power  by  the  creation  of  a  new  Judaism,  able  to  endure 
without  land,  city,  or  temple.  Through  the  reading  of 
the  Law,  supplemented  by  that  of  the  prophets,  in  the 
scattered  synagogues  of  the  Dispersion,  the  knowledge  of 
the  one  holy  God  and  of  His  covenant  with  Israel  was  kept 
fresh  in  the  hearts  of  all.  In  spite  of  all  that  may  be  said, 
with  perfect  justice,  of  the  Hmitations  on  God's  approach 
which  revelation  by  the  written  word  imposes,  and  especi- 
ally of  the  equahsation  of  ceremonial  with  moral  law, 
history  has  shown  that  the  Law  contained  a  latent  life 
awaiting  its  opportunity  for  new  and  yet  more  vigorous 
growth.  The  Priestly  Code  became  the  shell  in  which 
the  kernel  of  Deuteronomic,  that  is  prophetic,  teaching 
was  safely  kept,  until  such  time  as  it  could  grow  into  the 
Gospel. 

As  we  glance  at  the  whole  course  of  Israel's  idea  of  the 
approach  of  God  to  man,  from  the  primitive  behefs  of 
Semitic  nomads,  through  the  characteristic  and  unique 
prophetic  consciousness,  to  the  final  fixity  of  the  Written 
Word,  two  important  features  are  noticeable.  In  the  first 
place,  Israel  has  grasped  the  essential  truth  for  all  rehgion, 
that  in  the  fellowship  of  God  and  man  God  must  be  active 
as  well  as  man.  Yahweh  of  Israel,  in  definite  and  unmis- 
takable ways,  comes  out  to  meet  man,  and  does  not  simply 
wait  for  man's  approach.    In  the  second  place,  Israel  has 

1  Pss.  i.  2,  3,  xix.  10,  cxix.  54,  105. 

>  1  Mace.  iii.  48  (see  note  in  Cambridge  Bible  edition),  i.  67. 


v.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  GOD  TO  MAN  129 

reached  the  far-reaching  principle  that  the  highest  revela- 
tion of  God  must  be  made  through  human  personahty. 
This  is  the  philosophic  statement,  at  least,  of  that  for 
which  the  prophetic  consciousness  stands.  But  the 
demand  on  personal  reUgion,  which  is  made  by  the  direct 
relation  to  God  of  the  prophetic  consciousness,  was  too 
high  for  the  people  generally.  The  Law  was  a  compromise 
between  the  personal  and  sacramental  sides  of  religion — 
that  compromise  which,  in  some  form  or  other,  is  inevit- 
able, when  individual  piety  is  given  corporate  and  social 
expression. 


130      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   APPROACH   OF   MAN  TO  GOD 

It  is  characteristic  of  Christian  faith,  whenever  it  seeks 
conformity  with  its  New  Testament  t5rpe,  to  claim  for 
every  behever  the  right  of  direct  approach  to  God  through 
Christ.  The  one  condition  Christ  laid  down  is  moral ; 
those  who  do  the  will  of  God  are  already  spiritually  related 
to  Him,  and  through  Christ  Himself  they  find  the  Father 
He  revealed.  This  profound  conception  is  so  simple  in 
its  statement  as  to  seem  obvious.  Yet  it  is  really  the 
goal  of  a  long  development.  This  direct  moral  access 
to  God,  available  wherever  there  is  harmony  of  purpose 
between  the  human  will  and  the  divine,  begins  with  the 
prophetic  consciousness  of  Israel.  Two  permanent  con- 
tributions to  it  were  made  by  the  prophets,  as  a  result 
of  their  experience  of  the  approach  of  God  to  their  own 
hearts.  They  showed  the  possibility  of  direct  spiritual 
communion  between  human  and  divine  personaHty,  apart 
from  all  sacramental  rehgion,  and  they  taught  that  the 
hohness  of  God  is  primarily  constituted  by  His  moral 
character.  But,  as  already  indicated,  this  was  not  the 
idea  of  the  divine  '  hohness '  with  which  the  rehgion  of 
the  Old  Testament  began.  The  hohness  of  the  gods,  in 
the  Semitic  rehgions,  is  a  negative  rather  than  a  positive 
conception.  Its  original  meaning  seems  to  be  unapproach- 
ableness,  an  element  which  '  is  never  absent  from  the 
notion  '.^  In  Robertson  Smith's  words,  '  it  is  not  so  much 
a  thing  that  characterises  the  gods  and  divine  things  in 

1  Skinner  in  D.  B.,  ii.  p.  397. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  131 

themselves,  as  the  most  general  notion  that  governs 
their  relations  with  humanity  '.^  The  mysterious  and 
perilous  powers  which  the  gods  possess  check  every  rash 
and  ill-advised  attempt  to  approach  them.  The  same 
halo  of  holiness  attaches  to  all  that  is  connected  with 
their  worship.  This  is  precisely  the  same  kind  of  idea 
as  comparative  reUgion  designates  by  the  term  'taboo'. 
Sacred  objects  can  be  touched  only  under  the  strictest 
precautions  ;  they  are  as  dangerous  to  the  uninitiated  as 
the  switchboard  of  an  electrical  power-house  might  be 
to  a  child.  The  various  abstinences,  ablutions,  wearing 
of  ornaments  or  special  dress,  found  amongst  the  Hebrews 
as  amongst  other  peoples  in  their  approach  to  the  deity, 
spring  from  the  assumption  that  the  divine  hoHness 
makes  approach  unsafe,  without  the  insulation  they  afford. 
The  whole  conduct  of  war  in  early  times  is  regulated  by 
taboos,  because  of  the  presence  of  Yahweh  of  Hosts  in 
the  camp  ;  the  warrior  must  observe  certain  forms  of 
abstinence,  and  the  spoil  is  frequently  '  devoted '  to 
Yahweh,  i.e.  put  under  a  taboo  so  deadly  that  the  smallest 
portion  withheld  for  private  advantage  can  infect  the 
whole  camp,  as  we  see  in  the  well-known  story  of  Achan.^ 
All  this  is  capable  of  throwing  much  hght  on  early  con- 
ceptions of  worship.  Whether  the  holy  Yahweh  be 
approached  in  the  consecrated  battle-array,  or  on  the 
sacred  mountain,  similar  rules  must  be  observed.^ 

This  non-moral  conception  of  the  holiness  of  Yahweh 
finds  frequent  illustration  in  the  early  hterature.  One 
of  the  clearest  examples  is  afforded  by  the  Ark.  Later 
on,  the  Ark  came  to  be  represented  as  simply  a  convenient 
receptacle  for  the  tables  of  stone  on  which  the  Decalogue 
was  inscribed.*    But,  at  an  earher  period,  the  Ark  is  a 

1  Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  142. 

2  Deut.  xxiii.  13,  14  ;  1  Sam.  xxi.  5 ;  2  Sam.  xi.  11 ;  Josh.  vii. 

3  Is.  xiii.  3 ;  Jer.  vi.  4,  R.V.  mar.;  Ex.  xix.  14,  15. 

*  Deut.  X.  1-5.  The  Ark  seems  originally  to  have  been  a  box  for  carrying 
certain  sacred  stones.     Recently  it  has  been  argued  that  the  Ark  was  a  port- 


132      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

nomadic  shrine,  identified  with  the  presence  of  Yahweh 
in  the  midst  of  Israel.     Its  movements  are  accompanied 
by  solemn   adjurations;     when   the  Ark  goes   forward 
Moses  says :  ' 

*  Arise,  Yahweh,  and  let  Thine  enemies  be  scattered, 
And  let  those  that  hate  Thee  flee  from  Thy  presence  ! ' 

When  the  Ark  halts,  he  says  : 

'Return,    Yahweh,  to  the  ten   thousands   of   the  famihes   of 

Israel ! ' ^ 

The  fall  of  Jericho  is  secured  by  carrying  the  Ark  round 
and  round  the  city  hke  any  fetish.^    In  the  war  with  the 
Phihstmes,  the  Ark  is  taken  into  battle  from  its  resting- 
place  at  Shiloh,  that  its  presence  may  secure  victory  • 
when  It  is  captured,  '  the  glory  is  departed  from  Israel  '.3 
Ihe  rest  of  the  narrative  shows  how  perilous  it  is  for  man 
to  approach  Yahweh.     The  Phihstines  learn  this,  through 
the  fan  of  their  idols,  and  through  the  pestilence  that 
breaks  out  among  them,  until  they  are  glad  to  get  rid  of 
their  prize.     The  men  of  Beth-shemesh  learn  it,  through 
the  slaughter  of  a  multitude  of  them,  '  because  they  had 
looked  into  the  Ark  of  Yahweh '.     They  are  glad  to  pass 
on  their  perilous  visitor  to  the  men  of  another  city  saymg 
significantly,  '  Who  is  able  to  stand  before  Yahweh   this 
holy  God  ? '  4    Even  when,  after  twenty  years,  Da^d  is 
bringing  it  up  with  all  reverence  to  his  city,  Uzzah  dies 
because  he  tries  to  save  it  from  a  faU  when  the   oxen 
stumble;     there  is    a  physical  contagion   that  operates 
through  contact,  and  has  nothing  moral  in  it.s 
Even  when,  through  the  prophetic  teaching,  the  holi- 

n?\®c*i'T®'i-*^°]'T^.?:''^  '°'*^®'  ^^'l'  ^s  such,  contributed  to  the  spiritualitv 
of  Israel's  religion  (Dibelius,  Die  Lade  Jahves  pp.  102  f  )  Against  thsvipw 
see  Budde,  Theol.  Studien  und  Kritiken,  1906,  ppT  489-507  1  review  of 
recent  theories  ,s  given  by  Westphal.  JahwesWohnfmul^l:  90  f.  ^^ 

ixum.  X.  ^0,  6K>.  2  Josh.  vi.  4  f. 

^2S^S;ii:6,7.  'lSam.v.I.vu.1. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  133 

ness  of  God  was  filled  with  moral  content,  the  ritual  of 
worship,  with  its  holy  places,  seasons,  persons,  and  sacrifices, 
retained  many  practices  and  some  ideas  from  the  earlier 
non-moral  stage.  There  is  much  in  the  Priestly  Code 
which  is  explicable  only  as  a  survival  from  the  past.^ 
But  the  institutions  of  the  temple  worship,  the  external 
conditions  by  which  Israel's  hoHness  was  to  be  reahsed, 
were  now  charged  with  new  meaning.  The  God  who  said 
to  His  people,  '  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy ',  was  the  God 
who  had  revealed  Himself  in  the  prophets,  even  though 
approach  to  Him  was  hmited  by  a  network  of  conditions 
woven  from  an  entirely  different  set  of  ideas.  The  task 
of  this  chapter  is,  therefore,  both  to  survey  the  external 
means  of  approach  to  God,  in  their  development  to  the 
final  form  they  assumed  in  the  Law  of  Judaism,  and  to 
recognise  the  contrasted  prophetic  idea  of  moral  hoHness 
which  is  their  accompaniment  in  the  later  worship  of 
Israel,  especially  as  illustrated  by  the  Book  of  Psalms. 
In  the  moral  hohness  of  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart, 
regarded  as  essential  in  the  sight  of  Yahweh,  we  have  the 
characteristic  idea  of  worship  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  essential  fact  to  be  remembered  in  the  study  of  man's 
approach  to  God  is  this  gradual  transformation  of  the 
idea  of  hoUness. 


1.  Holy  Places  and  Seasons 

The  holy  places  of  Israel's  rehgion  are  the  natural 
starting-point  for  the  study  of  Israel's  approach  to  God. 
Because  Yahweh  is  conceived  to  be  in  some  sense  there, 

1  E.g.,  the  holiness  of  the  Nazirite  (Num.  vi.  5).  The  rules  of  cerernonial 
cleanness  and  uncleanness  which  figure  so  largely  in  the  Priestly  Code  belong 
to  the  same  circle  of  ideas  as  those  of  '  holiness '.  Both  are  a  development  of 
the  taboo.  But  the  holy  thing,  place,  or  person  is  now  fenced  off  because  ot 
its  relation  to  Yahweh,  whilst  the  '  unclean'  is  separately  classed  becaus^e  the 
associated  ideas  have  not  been  incorporated  in  the  religion  ot  Israel ;  e.g.  the 
corpse,  because  of  the  'heathen '  death  customs  (Num.  v.  2;  of.  1  bam.  xx.  'lb). 


134      EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

they  become  points  of  possible  contact  between  God  and 
man.  They  are  constituted  holy  by  the  divine  initiative. 
Here  Yahweh  has  chosen  to  reveal  Himself ;  here,  there- 
fore, His  presence  may  still  be  sought,  and  is  Ukely  to  be 
again  found.  In  the  earhest  conception,  and  even  to 
the  latest  phase  in  the  case  of  Zion,  they  are  His  dwelhng- 
places.  Horeb  is  in  this  sense  'the  mountain  of  God'. 
Here  He  reveals  Himself  in  the  flaming  bush  to  Moses, 
saying,  '  Put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the  place 
whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground  '.^  Even  as  late 
as  the  time  of  EHjah,  Horeb  continues  to  be  the  dwelHng- 
place  of  Yahweh,  to  which  the  disconsolate  prophet  resorts 
to  find  Him. 2  But  Israel's  gradual  appropriation  of  the 
Canaanite  sanctuaries,  combined  with  the  distance  of 
Horeb,  led  to  the  beUef  that  Yahweh  might  be  found  at 
these  holy  places  also.  This  appears  in  the  patriarchal 
stories.  Jacob  is  represented  as  discovering  the  sanctity 
of  Bethel  by  the  vision  of  angels.  To  the  writer  of  the 
story  Bethel  is  actually  and  topographically  the  gate  of 
heaven,  the  way  of  access  into  the  heavenly  dwelhng  of 
Yahweh.^  He  comes  this  way  to  the  earth,  as  He  came 
down  (from  heaven)  on  Sinai.*  The  '  heaven '  of  such  an 
age  must  not  be  confused  with  our  own  ideas ;  it  is  very 
locally  conceived,  and  not  far  off.  The  need  of  early 
rehgion  is  to  find  some  spot  of  earth  where  He  whose 
heavenly  abode  is  inaccessible  may  be  approached  and 

1  Ex.  iii.  5.  Cf.  the  similar  command  to  Joshua  at  Gilgal  (Josh.  v.  13-15), 
another  sanctuary,  from  which  the  angel  of  Yahweh  comes  to  Israel  ( Jud.  ii.  1). 
The  command  is  illustrated  by  the  practice  of  modern  Samaritans  and 
Muhammedans,  when  entering  the  sanctuary  :  the  shoes  would  be  rendered 
unsuitable  for  common  wear  when  infected  with  'holiness  *  (Robertson  Smith, 
Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  453). 

2  i  Kings  xix.  8.  Cf.,  also,  the  representation  in  the  Song  of  Deborah. 
'Throughout  antiquity,  the  sanctuary  represents,  first  and  foremost,  the 
dwelling  of  a  god '  [rather  than,  as  in  our  modern  idea,  a  place  of  worship] 
(Jastrow,  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  265). 

3  Gen.  xxviii.  10  f. 

4  Ex.  xix.  11,  etc.  On  the  whole  subject,  see  Westphal,  Jahwes  Wohn- 
itdtten.  The  idea  of  heaven  as  Yahweh's  dwelling-place  is  thus  an  early  one, 
not  unrelated  to  that  of  Yahweh  as  a  '  storm '  god. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  135 

found.  This  need  was  met  by  the  different  holy  places 
of  Canaan. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  prior  to  the  Deuteronomic 
Reformation,  the  worship  of  Yahweh  at  these  '  high 
places'  was  perfectly  legitimate.  In  the  early  Book  of 
the  Covenant,  Yahweh  is  represented  as  saying  :  '  In 
every  place  where  I  cause  my  name  to  be  remembered, 
I  will  come  unto  thee  \^  i.e.  wherever  a  theophany  has 
marked  out  a  sanctuary,  Yahweh  may  be  worshipped, 
and  will  approach  those  who  approach  Him.  Before  the 
seventh  century  there  is  no  indication  whatsoever  that 
any  law  exists  against  worshipping  Yahweh  elsewhere 
than  at  Jerusalem.  Samuel  grows  up  at  the  local  sanctuary 
of  Shiloh,  and  there  receives  the  revelation  of  Yahweh  ; 
later  on,  according  to  a  most  instructive  narrative,  he  is 
found  officiating  at  the  sacrifice  at  a  local  high  place. ^  There 
is  a  vivid  picture  of  the  thirty  guests  waiting  for  Samuel 
to  bless  the  sacrifice,  before  they  eat  the  holy  meal  in  the 
special  guest-chamber  attached  to  the  sanctuary.  Besides 
the  altar  on  which  the  sacrificed  animal  was  slain,  the 
constant  accompaniments  of  these  high  places  were  the 
Asherah,  a  sacred  wooden  post  which  was  apparently  a 
survival  from  earher  tree- worship,  and  the  Mazzebah, 
the  sacred  stone  pillar,  like  that  erected  by  Jacob  at 
Bethel,  or  by  Joshua  at  Shechem. 

The  Deuteronomic  Reformation  of  the  seventh  century 
centralised  all  worship  in  Jerusalem.  The  high  places, 
with  their  sacred  stones  and  posts,  their  altars  and  their 
images,  were  to  be  destroyed.^  Henceforth,  there  was 
to  be  but  one  sanctuary  of  Yahweh,  where  His  worship 
could  be  kept  free  from  those  alien  associations  which 
were  corrupting  it  at  the  local  sanctuaries.  The  prophets 
of  the  eighth  century  had  attacked  such  practices,  but 
their  failure  had  been  shown  by  the  long  reign  of  Manasseh, 
in  which  various  cults  flourished.  How  real  the  danger  of 
1  Ex.  XX.  24.  2  1  Sam.  ix.  3  Devit.  xii.  2,  3. 


136     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

corruption  was  may  be  seen  from  the  term  which  denotes 
those  who  abandoned  themselves  professionally  to  sexual 
immoraHty  at  local  sanctuaries.  They  are  called  '  holy 
ones'.^  The  law  of  the  single  sanctuary,  supported  by 
the  influence  of  the  Exile  (which  began  a  generation 
afterwards),  succeeded  where  the  prophets  had  failed, 
and  was  practicable,  because  of  the  small  extent  of  the 
territory  to  which  the  sanctuary  ministered.^ 

The  temple  at  Jerusalem  was  already  singled  out  from 
the  local  sanctuaries  for  various  reasons.  It  was  prob- 
ably erected  on  a  site  indicated  by  a  pecuUar  theophany.^ 
It  was  the  official  temple  of  the  chief  city,  and  stood  in 
special  relation  to  the  royal  house.  It  alone  possessed 
the  sacred  Ark,  after  the  recovery  of  this  from  the 
PhiHstines,  and  its  brief  sojourn  in  the  house  of  Obed- 
edom.  Consequently,  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  occupied 
a  unique  position  even  prior  to  Deuteronomy.  But  the 
importance  of  the  Deuteronomic  centraUsation  of  worship 
can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  Henceforth  this  temple 
alone  expressed  the  idea  of  the  approach  of  man  to  God. 
'  The  symboHsm  of  the  second  temple',  it  has  been  said, 
.  .  .  '  with  its  graduated  series  of  sacred  spaces  culminat- 
ing in  the  inmost  shrine  or  most  holy  place,  its  different 
classes  of  ministers,  and  its  minutely  regulated  cere- 
monial, was  so  designed  as  to  form  an  impressive  exhibi- 
tion to  the  Israelites  of  the  ruhng  idea  of  hoUness  '.*  Here 
dwelt  Yahweh,^  and  here  the  approach  of  man  to  Him 
found  its  great  opportunity  and  its  unique  privileges. 
We  must  reahse  the  intensity  of  this  conception  of  His 
local   presence  at  Jerusalem,  even  when  (in    post-exihc 

1  Hos.  iv.  14  ;  Deut.  xxiii.  17  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  7  ;  cf.  Amos  ii.  7.  Another 
practice  condemned  (Deut.  xviii.  10)  was  the  sacrifice  of  children,  which  re- 
cent excavations  show  to  have  been  so  frequent  (Vincent,  op.  cit.,  pp.  189 f.). 

2  *  The  whole  land  of  Israel  is  small :  Jerusalem  is  distant  from  the  sea 
only  thirtj'-three  miles,  from  Jordan  about  eighteen,  from  Hebron  nineteen, 
and  from  Samaria  thirty-four  or  thirty-five '  (G.  A.  Smith,  E.  Bi.,  col.  2417). 

3  2  Sam.  xxiv.  16, 17.  ^  Skinner,  D.  B.,  ii.  p.  396. 
*  Ps.  cxxxii.  14. 


VI.]  THE  APPEOACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  137 

religion)  the  ideas  of  worship  had  been  spiritualised,  if 
we  are  to  do  justice  to  the  passion  with  which  the  Jew 
regarded  the  temple,  the  passion  which  throbs  through 
the  Psalter.^ 

The  necessary  and  genuine  service  rendered  to  man's 
approach  to  God  by  holy  places  has  for  its  parallel  that 
rendered  by  holy  seasons.  Just  as  there  are  local  centres 
at  which  men  feel  themselves  nearer  than  anywhere  else 
to  the  mysterious  powers  that  influence  human  Hfe — the 
oasis  in  the  desert,  the  awe-inspiring  mountain,  the  scene 
of  a  divine  theophany — so  there  are  particular  times  at 
which  they  feel  drawn  to  approach  the  deity  with  peculiar 
earnestness  of  supphcation  or  thanksgiving.  The  three 
annual  festivals  of  Israel,  the  Feast  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
the  Feast  of  Weeks,  and  the  Feast  of  Ingathering,  all 
spring  from  the  manifestations  of  divine  power  in  the 
operations  of  the  agricultural  year.  In  consequence  of 
the  historical  character  of  the  rehgion,  they  eventuall}^ 
became  anniversaries  of  the  great  events  of  history  in 
which  Yahweh's  power  had  been  manifested. 

The  three  annual  festivals  are  akeady  enjoined  in  the 
Book  of  the  Covenant,^  at  a  time  when  they  were  naturally 
celebrated  at  the  local  sanctuaries.     They  are  occasions 

1  The  temple  founded  by  Onias  IV.  at  Leontopolis  in  Egypt  about  160  B.C. 
(which  existed  until  a.D.  73)  was  intentionally  a  rival  to  that  at  Jerusalem, 
which  had  been  desecrated  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  was  in  the 
hands  of  usurpers.  Recently  discovered  Aramaic  papyri  have  shown  that  a 
Jewish  community,  with  a  temple  for  the  worship  of  Yahweh,  existed  at 
Elephantine  (near  the  First  Cataract  of  Egypt)  at  least  as  early  as  525  B.C., 
and  quite  possibly  at  a  considerably  earlier  date.  The  ritual  included  the 
meal-offering  {minchah),  the  incense-offerijig  {lebonah),  and  the  burnt-offering 
('olah),  but  not  the  post-exilic  sin-offering  and  guilt-offering.  Possilily  the 
Deuteronomic  Law  of  the  single  sanctuary,  though  known  to  the  original 
founders  of  this  temple,  was  considered  not  to  apply  to  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion.  But  it  seems  probable  that  this  was  a  pre-Deuteronomic  founda- 
tion in  the  interests  of  Jewish  troops  sent  into  the  service  of  Egypt  in  the 
seventh  century  (cf.  Deut.  xvii.  16).  The  Aramaic  texts  are  given  by  Ungnad, 
Aramaische  Papyrus  aus  Elephantine  (1911);  a  German  translation  by 
Staerk,  Alte  und  Neue  Aramaische  Papyri  (1912) ;  a  full  discussion  of  their 
significance  by  Meyer,  Der  Papyrusfund  von  Elephantine  (1912). 

2  Ex.  xxiii.  14-17. 


138     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [en. 

of  agricultural  rejoicing,  and  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
they  were  adopted  from  the  Canaanites  after  the  transi- 
tion of  Israel  from  nomadic  to  agricultural  hfe.*  The 
first  was  a  spring  festival,  celebrated  when  the  barley- 
harvest  ripened.  Cakes  of  unleavened  bread  were  hurriedly 
made  from  it,  and  formed  the  food  for  seven  days.  The 
second  fell  seven  weeks  later,  when  the  corn-harvest  was 
completed,  and  the  first-fruits  of  the  wheat  were  offered. 
The  third  fell  in  the  autumn,  and  marked  the  ingathering 
of  the  grapes  and  other  fruit.  The  common  note  in  these 
festivals  is  the  joyous  recognition  of  Yahweh's  gifts  in 
the  produce  of  the  land,  and  the  dedication  of  the  first- 
fruits  to  Him.  But  from  a  very  early  period  the  first 
of  these  agricultural  feasts  was  connected  with  sacrifices 
of  another  kind  (famihar  to  us  under  the  name  of  the 
Passover),  which  probably  go  back  to  Israel's  nomadic 
period.2  Here  the  associations  are  with  the  nomad's 
cattle  ;  the  firstUngs  are  sacrificed  in  the  spring  season.^ 

The  earHest  reference  to  the  Passover  which  we  possess,* 
already  gives  it  historical  meaning  by  connecting  it  with 
the  Exodus  from  Egypt.  This  connection  becomes  a 
primary  reason  for  the  celebration  of  the  Passover  in  the 
month  Abib,  according  to  the  Deuteronomic  Code  :  *  In 
the  month  of  Abib  Yahweh  thy  God  brought  thee  forth 
out  of  Egypt  by  night  '.^  A  striking  hturgy  of  thanks- 
giving for  some  one  of  the  three  feasts  is  also  given,  in 
which  the  Israefite  looks  back  across  his  basket  of  offered 
fruit  to  the  far-off  days  of  Jacob's  wanderings.®    In  the 

1  The  Canaanites  at  Shechem,  for  example,  celebrated  a  vintage  festival  in 
connection  with  their  Baal,  when  the  grape-harvest  had  been  gathered  in 
(Jud.  ix.  27  ;  cf.  xxi.  19).    The  Hebrew  festivals  mark  three  such  periods  in 

•  the  agricultural  year. 

2  Ex.  xii.  21  f. 

3  Ex.  xxxiv.  19,  20.  Combined  with  this,  there  are  other  rites,  e.g.  the 
sprinkling  of  the  door-posts  with  blood,  which  connects  with  forms  of  a 
threshold  covenant  found  amongst  many  peoples.  The  fact  that  the  celebration 
is  held  at  night  has  suggested  to  some  scholars  a  connection  with  the  phases 
of  the  moon. 

4  Ex.  xii.  21  f.  »  Deut.  xvi.  1.  6  Deut.  xxvi.  5  f. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  139 

later  '  Law  of  Holiness  ',^  the  custom  of  living  in  booths 
at  the  time  of  the  autumn  ingathering  is  interpreted  as  a 
commemoration  of  Israel's  Hfe  in  the  desert.  At  a  later 
date  still  (beyond  the  Umits  of  the  Old  Testament),  the 
Feast  of  Weeks,  or  Pentecost,  was  made  an  anniversary 
of  the  giving  of  the  Law  on  Sinai.  This  enlargement  of 
the  meaning  of  the  great  festivals  is  very  significant.  It 
shows  that  Israel  recognised  in  Yahweh  no  mere  nature- 
god,  the  giver  of  the  kindly  fruits  of  the  earth  hke  the 
Baalim  of  the  Canaanites,  but  One  who  manifested  Him- 
self by  His  acts  in  the  history  of  the  nation.  The  memory 
of  those  acts,  handed  on  by  father  to  son,^  guaranteed 
the  redemptive  relation  in  which  Yahweh  stood  to  Israel. 
We  may  compare  the  influence  of  these  festivals,  thus 
interpreted,  with  that  exercised  by  the  festivals  of  the 
Christian  year,  similarly  transformed  from  their  earUer 
meanings  into  anniversaries  of  redemptive  history. 

A  similar  process  of  religious  or  moral  interpretation 
may  be  observed  in  regard  to  the  weekly  Sabbath.  The 
custom  of  observing  the  seventh  day  of  the  week  as  '  holy  ' 
is  very  ancient  in  Israel.^  It  is  coupled  with  the  obser- 
vance of  '  new  moons  ',*  and  seems  to  be  derived  originally 
from  ideas  concerning  the  seven  planets,  though  Baby- 
lonian origin  is  not  yet  clearly  shown.  But,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  it  is  explained  along  two  different  lines,  one 
moral  and  the  other  rehgious.  The  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
characteristically  urges  the  weekly  rest  on  grounds  of 
humanity  to  dependents.^  The  version  of  the  Decalogue 
which  is  found  in  the  Book  of  Exodus  makes  the  seventh 
day  a  memorial  of  Yahweh's  rest  upon  the  completion 
of  the  (actual)  week  of  creation,  in  agreement  with  the 

1  Lev.  xxiii.  43. 

2  Deut.  vi.  20  f. 

3  2  Kings  iv.  23 ;  cf.  Amos  viii.  5  ;  Hos.  ii.  11. 

4  Cf.  1  Sam.  XX.  5. 

6  Deut.  V.  14  (cf.  Ex.  xxiii.  12).  In  Deut.  v.  15  the  Sabhath  becomes  a 
memorial  of  the  deliverance  from  Egypt. 


140     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

opening  chapter  of  Genesis.^  The  important  religious 
influence  of  this  recurrent  day,  especiallj^  in  those  later 
centuries  when  synagogues  formed  the  local  centres  of 
Judaism,  needs  no  comment.  Together  with  circumcision, 
the  Sabbath  became  a  distinctive  mark  of  Judaism.^ 

The  centraHsation  of  worship  at  Jerusalem  naturally 
involved  considerable  changes  in  the  celebration  of  the 
annual  festivals ;  for  examjple,  it  was  now  possible  to 
fix  the  time  for  the  nation  as  a  whole,  whereas,  previously, 
the  different  parts  of  the  country  followed  their  respective 
local  harvest-times.  But,  in  the  various  developments, 
nothing  is  more  remarkable  or  characteristic  than  the 
rise  of  the  Day  of  Atonement,  observed  on  the  tenth  day 
of  the  seventh  month. ^  The  solemn  ceremonies  of  that 
great  Day  are  well  known,  if  only  through  the  use  made 
of  them  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
The  high  priest  laid  aside  his  usual  dress  for  simpler  attire 
that  he  might  enter  in  all  humility,  on  this  day  alone,  into 
the  incense-filled  Holy  of  Hohes.  There  he  made  sacri- 
ficial atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  people,  having  first 
made  an  offering  for  his  own  sins.  The  fact  that  this 
became,  for  the  later  Judaism,  the  most  important  of  all 
holy  seasons,  marks  the  change  of  spirit  which  came  over 
the  religion  of  Israel  in  post-exilic  times.  In  the  shadow  of 
the  national  tragedy,  the  early  spirit  of  rejoicing  which 
accompanied  the  three  annual  festivals  gave  place  to 
a  deepening    sense  of  sin  and  a  self-abasing  penitence. 

1  Ex.  XX.  11 — probably  a  later  expansion  in  the  spirit  of  P ;  see  the  Oxford 
Bexateuch,  ii.  p.  112. 

2  The  observance  of  the  seventh  year  as  a  '  Sabbath'  (Lev.  xxv.  1-7  ;  of.  Ex. 
xxiii.  10  f. )  is  historically  attested  [e.g.  1  Mace.  vi.  49),  but  not  that  of  the 
fiftieth  year  as  a  'Jubilee'  (Lev.  xxv.  8  f.),  which  is  an  impracticable 
priestly  ideal,  further  expressing  the  principle  that  the  land  is  Yahweh's. 

3  Lev.  xvi.  29.  This  date  for  the  national  fast  of  humiliation  was  probably 
chosen  as  being  'New  Year's  Day'  (Lev.  xxv.  9  ;  D.  £.,  i.  p.  199).  Earlier 
instances  of  fasting  will  be  found  in  2  Sam.  xii.  22  ;  1  Kings  xxi.  27  ; 
Jer.  xxxvi.  6  ;  Zech.  vii.  3,  5,  viii.  19.  Ezekiel  desiderated  ceremonies  of 
atonement  on  certain  days  (xlv.  18-20),  but  even  in  Nehemiah's  time,  though 
there  is  a  fast-day  on  the  24th  of  the  seventh  month  (ix.  1),  there  is  no 
Levitical  Day  of  Atonement  on  the  10th. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  141 

The  ordinary  ceremonies,  also  developed  in  the  same 
direction,  were  felt  to  be  inadequate  to  express  this. 
The  Day  of  Atonement  is  an  attempt  to  regain  the  holiness 
lost  in  the  year  that  has  gone.  Its  ritual  enables  the 
people,  through  their  representative,  to  approach  the  holy 
God.  Thus,  as  has  often  been  said,  the  religion  of  Judaism 
finds  in  the  Day  of  Atonement  its  culminating  point. 
'  The  leading  idea  of  the  entire  Priestly  Law  found  here 
its  best  expression.  ...  It  is  the  key-stone  of  the  whole 
system,  the  last  consequence  of  the  principle,  "  Ye  shall 
be  (ceremonially)  holy,  for  I  am  holy  "  '.^ 

The  salient  facts  in  Israel's  approach  to  God  through 
holy  places  and  seasons  are,  therefore,  these  two — the 
centraHsation  of  worship  at  a  single  temple,  where  its 
purity  could  be  successfully  guarded,  and  the  deepened 
moral  meaning  which  special  days  of  approach  acquire, 
in  the  light  of  historical  experience,  whether  redemptive 
or  punitive.  This  will  be  illustrated  more  fully  by  the 
ritual  of  the  temple. 

2.  The  Priesthood  and  the  Sacrifices 

The  Jewish  priest  may  be  defined  as  the  (ceremonially)  ! 
'  holy '  person  through  whom  God  is  approached  in  the  , 
divinely  prescribed  way.     As  such,  he  forms  the  direct  { 
contrast  to  the  prophet  who  is  the  (morally)  holy  person  ' 
through   whom    God    approaches    man.     In    the    regula-  . 
tions  of  the  Priestly  Code,  the  appointment  of  Aaron  and 
his  sons  to  be  priests  follows  naturally  upon  the  account 
of  the  altar ;   the  ministry  of  that  altar  can  be  discharged 
only  through  priests  so  appointed,   so  arrayed,   so  con- 
secrated.2     This  holy  priesthood  is  set  apart  as  represent- 

1  Benzinger,  E.  BL,  col.  385 ;  but  the  moral  element  in  this  '  holiness  '  must 
not  be  forgotten. 

2  Ex.  xxviii.,  xxix.  Cf.  P's  story  of  the  revolt  of  the  laity  under  Korah 
against  Moses  and  Aaron  (here  representiu;.;  the  Levites).  The  (unholy)  rebels 
presume  to  approach  Yahweh  with  an  offering  of  incense.    They  are  destroyed 


142      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

ing  the  people.  The  representation  finds  fullest  expression 
in  the  person  of  the  high  priest.  He  bears  the  names  of 
the  twelve  tribes  on  his  shoulders  and  breast,  '  when  he 
goeth  in  to  the  holy  place,  for  a  memorial  before  Yahweh 
continually  '.^  If  he  sins,  he  brings  guilt  on  the  people.^ 
This  representation  of  man  before  God  should  be  clearly 
distinguished  from  that  very  different  type  of  priesthood, 
in  which  God  is  represented  to  man  through  the  priest.^  In 
the  case  of  Israel,  this  latter  representation  belongs  not 
to  the  priest  but  to  the  prophet,  through  whose  moral 
consciousness  God  speaks.*  Subordinated  to  the  priestly 
Aaronites  in  the  post-exiUc  religion  are  the  Levites.  They 
are  selected,  according  to  the  Priestly  Code,  by  a  further 
divine  command,  that  they  may  perform  the  humbler, 
non-priestly  ministry.^  They,  also,  have  a  representa- 
tive character,  since  they  are  supposed  to  replace  the 
first-bom  of  all  Israel,  who,  according  to  primitive  ideas, 
belong  to  Yahweh.  The  fact  that  they  belong  to  the  same 
'  tribe '  as  the  priestly  Aaronites,  must  not  be  allowed  to 
hide  the  fact  that  they  are  a  distinct  institution  for  a 
special  purpose,  sharply  distinguished  from  the  priesthood 
proper.  This  distinction  belongs,  however,  whoUy  to  the 
Priestly  Code.  Ezekiel  prepares  for  it  by  his  separation 
of  the  Zadokites,  or  priests  of  Jerusalem,  from  the  country 
priests  who  had  ministered  at  the  local  sanctuaries,  and 
were  therefore  to  be  excluded  from  the  priestly  office 
proper.^  But  in  pre-exihc  times  there  is  no  distinction 
between  priests  and  Levites  ;  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
the  terms  are  applied  to  the  same  persons.''  At  a  still 
earher  date,  the  term  '  Levite '  was  used  of  a  professional 

by  fire,  from  which  their  censers  are  rescued,  'for  these  are  holy '  (Num.  xvi., 
where  the  story  is  combined  with  that  of  a  civil  revolt  under  Dathan  and 
Abiram). 
1  Ex.  xxviii.  12,  29.  2  Lev.  iv.  3  ;  cf.  Zech.  iii. 

3  E.g.,  Roman  Catholic  sacerdotalism  (Kautzsch,  D.  B.,  v.  p.  719). 

4  Thus  the  high-priesthood  of  Christ,  as  the  New  Testament  conceives  it,  is 
the  adequate  representation  of  man  *  within  the  veil '. 

5  Num.  iii.  5  f .  ^  Ezek.  xliv.  13.  '  xviii.  1. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  143 

priest,  with  no  tribal  meaning  at  all.^  In  these  earHer 
days,  as  need  hardly  be  said,  the  office  of  the  priest  was 
very  differently  conceived  from  the  form  it  assumes  in 
the  Law.  Not  sacrifice,  but  the  interpretation  of  the 
sacred  oracle,  would  be  the  chief  priestly  function.  It 
was,  indeed,  open  to  any  Israehte  to  sacrifice,  and  the 
priest  is  not  even  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 
The  advancing  specialisation  of  a  sacrificial  priesthood 
is  naturally  accompanied  by  that  of  the  sacrifices  them- 
selves, of  which  four  chief  types  may  be  here  noticed.  The 
most  primitive  example  of  bloody  sacrifice  recorded  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  that  described  after  one  of  Saul's  victories 
over  the  Phihstines.^  His  hungry  soldiers  were  slaughtering 
and  eating  the  captured  animals  without,  according  to 
custom,  offering  the  blood  to  Yahweh.  Saul  therefore 
converts  a  great  stone  into  an  altar,  where  all  the  animals 
are  to  be  slain,  and  the  blood  is  to  be  poured  out.  After 
this  procedure,  the  soldiers  are  free  to  eat  of  the  animals, 
now  drained  of  their  blood.  This  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  what  we  know  of  the  practice  of  Semitic  nomads. 
The  altar  of  the  pre-Muhammedan  Arabs  was  not  an 
idealised  hearth,  Hke  the  Vestal  flame  that  was  central 
in  the  Roman  reHgion ;  it  was  a  stone  on,  or  at,  which 
the  blood  of  the  slaughtered  animal  was  poured  out.^ 
The  flesh  was  consumed  by  those  who  offered  the  sacri- 
fice, and  by  their  guests,  just  as  was  the  case  at  the  gather- 
ing to  which  Samuel  invited  Saul.*  The  most  natural 
interpretation  of  this  custom  is  that  which  regards  it  as 
a  communion  feast,  strengthening  the  bond  between  the 
deity  and  his  worshippers.    The  blood  is  peculiarly  the 

1  Jud.  xvii.  7.  The  duties  of  this  Levite,  who  belongs  to  the  clan  of  Judah, 
are  the  oversight  of  the  ephod,  the  teraphini,  and  the  idol. 

3  1  Sam.  liv.  32-35.  ^  Wellhausen,  Reste,  p.  116. 

4  Ibid. ,  p.  118  ;  1  Sam.  ix.  22  f.  We  must  remember  that  the  eating  of  flesh 
is,  and  was,  a  rare  occasion  for  Semitic  nomads,  so  that  every  such  meal  might 
be  a  sacred  festival  (of.  1  Kings  i.  9),  as  well  as  a  time  of  hospitable  rejoicing. 
'  Seldom  ',  says  Doughty  {Arabia  Deserta,  i.  p.  452),  '  the  nomads  eat  other 
flesh  than  the  meat  of  their  sacrifices '. 


144     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [en. 

portion  of  the  deity  because  of  its  mysterious  and  perilous 
qualities ;  amongst  primitive  peoples  in  general  the  use 
of  blood  is  a  central  feature  in  both  religion  and  magic. 
In  the  account  of  the  covenant  sacrifice  at  Sinai,  the  blood 
is  sprinkled  partly  on  the  altar,  and  partly  on  the  people.^ 

In  the  type  of  early  sacrifice  which  has  been  named 
(known  in  our  version  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  peace- 
offering),  nothing  more  than  the  blood  and  portions  of  the 
fat  2  were  reserved  for  the  deity.  But,  already  in  pre-exiUc 
times,  there  was  another  distinct,  though  far  less  frequent, 
form  of  animal  sacrifice,  known  as  the  burnt-offering, 
which  was  wholly  offered  to  God.^  Here  the  underlying 
idea  would  seem  to  be  the  conveyance  of  a  gift  to  the 
deity  by  the  convenient  means  of  the  fire,  which  turns 
it  into  rising  smoke.  As  such  a  gift,  wholly  given  to 
Yahweh,  the  burnt-offering  formed  a  proper  accompani- 
ment of  peace-oiferings,  with  which  it  occurs  more  often 
than  alone.* 

When  we  turn  from  these  simple  types  of  pre-exilic 
sacrifice  (the  peace-offering  and  the  burnt- offering)  to  the 
elaborate  ritual  of  post-exilic  worship,  we  find  perhaps 
the  most  striking  and  convincing  proof  of  development 
the  Old  Testament  affords.  To  the  peace-offering  and 
the  burnt-offering  of  pre-exilic  times  two  more  types  of 
bloody  sacrifice  are  added,  viz.  the  sin-offering  and  the 
trespass-offering,  and  the  sin-offering  claims  the  principal 
place  amongst  the  four  main  types.  This  change  points  to 
a  new  tone  and  emphasis  in  the  post-exilic  religion. 
The  rejoicing  of  the  festal  meal  has  been  displaced  by 

1  Ex.  xxiv.  6,  8. 

2  This  was  burnt ;  cf.  1  Sam.  ii.  15. 

3  Burnt-oflFerings  were  offered  daily  at  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  Ahaz 
(2  Kings  xvi.  15) ;  we  hear  of  them  also  on  special  occasions,  such  as  the 
arrival  of  the  Ark  from  the  Philistine  country  (1  Sam.  vi.  14),  or  when 
Solomon  approached  Yahweh  at  Gibeon  (1  Kings  iii.  4). 

4  So  David,  having  bought  the  threshing-floor  of  Araunah,  'built  there  an 
altar  unto  Yahweh,  and  offered  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings '  (2  Sam. 
xxiv.  25). 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  145 

penitent  humiliation  before  Yahweh,  which  reflected  the 
later  sorrows  of  the  nation.  The  flesh  of  the  sin-offering, 
if  offered  on  behalf  of  the  high  priest  or  the  community  as 
a  whole,  was  burnt  away  from  the  altar  ;  in  other  cases, 
it  had  to  be  consumed  by  the  priests,  because  of  its  special 
'  holiness ',  and  under  special  conditions.^  The  priests  eat 
the  flesh  of  the  sin-offering  because,  as  Robertson  Smith 
says,  '  the  flesh,  like  the  sacramental  cup  in  the  Roman 
Cathohc  Church,  w^as  too  sacred  to  be  touched  by  the 
laity  '.2  Nor  must  it  be  thought  that  the  sin-offering  has 
a  purely  moral  reference.  The  sin-offering  is  made,  in 
the  case  of  the  leper,  as  part  of  his  official  cleansing,^  as 
well  as  in  other  purificatory  rites  of  a  wholly  non-moral 
character.  We  must  remember,  also,  in  any  endeavour 
to  understand  what  sacrifice  means  for  the  Jewish  rehgion, 
that  no  definite  provision  at  all  is  made  for  what  we  should 
call  sin  in  the  full  sense — i.e.  deliberate  and  voluntary 
rebellion  against  God's  law.  With  this  the  sacrificial  system 
does  not  deal.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  perhaps  the 
trespass-offering  (R.V.  guilt-offering),  the  fourth  main  type  of 
bloody  sacrifice.  This  seems  to  have  arisen  from  cases  in 
which  it  was  possible  to  make  a  restitution  of  misappropri- 
ated property,  human  or  divine.  It  was  to  be  done  with 
the  addition  of  a  fifth  of  the  value ;  the  trespass-offering 
itself  was  a  ram.*  But  even  here,  the  case  of  wrong  done 
to  God  intentionally  is  expressly  excluded.^  For  sin  in 
the  full  sense,  there  is  but  one  issue  according  to  the 
Levitical  theory:  'The  soul  that  doeth  aught  with  an 
high  hand,  whether  he  be  home-born  or  a  stranger,  the 
same  blasphemeth  Yahweh  ;  and  that  soul  shall  be  cut 
off  from  among  his  people  '.^ 

In  regard  to  the  general  significance  of  the  sin-offering, 

1  Lev.  vi.  26  f.     This  is  a  serious  objection  to  the  common  idea  that  the 
victim  penally  represents  the  sinner. 

2  Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  350.  '  Lev.  xiv.  19. 
4  Lev  vi   1  f     V  14-16.             ^  Lev.  v.  15.              «  Num.  xv.  30. 


146      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

which  is  the  central  form  of  sacrifice  in  the  post-exiHc 
rehgion  of  Israel,  there  seems  no  sufficient  evidence  for 
the  idea  of  a  vicarious  ^penalty.  Those  who  appeal  to  the 
case  of  the  scapegoat,  sent  away  for  Azazel  into  the 
wilderness  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  (Lev.  xvi.),  over- 
look the  fact  that  this  was  not  a  sacrifice  at  all ;  the  com- 
panion goat  that  was  retained  formed  the  sacrifice,  whilst 
it  is  the  non-sacrificial  goat  that  bears  away  the  iniquities 
of  Israel  into  a  solitary  land.^  Nor  does  the  fact  that 
the  offerer  lays  his  hand  upon  the  victim  ^  prove  any 
transference  of  guilt,  for  the  same  ceremony  occurs  also 
in  the  case  of  the  burnt-offering  and  the  peace-offering,^ 
where  no  such  transference  can  be  supposed.  Such  laying 
on  of  hands  is  sufficiently  explained  as  a  ritual  expression 
of  the  relation  of  the  offerer  to  the  animal  he  is  offering 
to  Yahweh.  Finally,  nothing  can  be  made  out  for  the 
idea  of  a  substitutionary  atonement  from  the  manipula- 
tion of  the  victim's  blood.  In  the  case  of  the  burnt- 
offering,  the  peace-offering,  and  the  trespass- offering,  the 
blood  of  the  victim  was  dashed  against  the  sides  of  the 
altar ;  in  the  case  of  the  sin-offering,  some  of  it  was 
smeared  on  the  four  horns  of  the  altar,  and  the  rest  was 
poured  out  at  its  foot.  The  object  of  this  special  treat- 
ment is  apparently  to  estabhsh  an  even  closer  relation 
with  the  deity.  The  statement  that  '  it  is  the  blood  that 
maketh  atonement  by  reason  of  the  life  '  *  is  in  perfect 
agreement  with  the  Hebrew  idea  of  the  blood-soul ;  but 
the  '  atonement '  made  consists  in  the  restoration  of  a 
quasi-physical  relationship,  rather  than  in  the  forensic 
conceptions  of  Protestant  theology.  The  blood-rites  are, 
indeed,  central  in  sacrifice,  and  they  may  form  its  original 

1  This  is  really  a  survival  of  symbolic  magic  ;  cf.  the  Babylonian  incanta- 
tion :  '  As  this  onion  is  peeled  and  thrown  into  the  fire ',  etc.  ( Jastrow, 
Rdigious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  315). 

2  Lev.  iv.  29.  '  Lev.  i,  4,  iii.  8. 

4  Lev.  xvii.  11,  A  poor  man's  bloodless  offering  of  flour  also  atones 
(Lev.  V.  13). 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  147 

nucleus ;  ^  but  they  are  to  be  explained  from  the  ideas 
of  primitive  animism,  not  from  those  of  modem  juris- 
prudence. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  we  must  dismiss  from  the  mind, 
in  regard  to  the  sin-offering  of  the  Old  Testament,  the 
idea  that  the  animal  victim  receives  the  penalty  which  is 
really  due  to  the  offerer  of  the  sacrifice.  At  the  same 
time,  it  must  be  recognised  that  the  general  idea  of  sub- 
stitution (the  emphasis  faUing  on  the  value  of  the  gift 
rather  than  the  suffering  of  the  victim)  does  occur  amongst 
the  Hebrews,  as  amongst  other  peoples.  It  is  illustrated 
by  the  ransoming  of  the  first-born,^  and  by  the  related 
story  of  Abraham's  proposed  sacrifice  of  Isaac, ^  apparently 
written  to  account  for  the  substitution  of  animal  for  human 
sacrifice.  The  most  important  expression  of  the  substitu- 
tionary idea  is  that  of  the  fifty- third  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
in  which  other  peoples  approach  God  through  Israel, 
the  nation  being  conceived  as  a  '  guilt-offering ',  a  lamb 
that  is  led  to  the  slaughter.*  But  nothing  is  said,  even 
there,  which  makes  the  value  of  this  substitutionary 
offering  to  He  in  the  penal  transference  to  Israel  of  the 
guilt  of  the  nations.  Israel  actually  suffers  as  the  nations 
should  have  suffered ;  yet  the  purpose  of  that  suffering 
is  not  to  satisfy  divine  justice,  but  to  move  the  nations 
to  penitence,  and  to  provide  the  costhest  of  gifts  with 
which  they  might  approach  God. 

As  for  the  interpretation  of  sacrifice  in  general,  it  may 
be  said  that,  in  the  pre-exiHc  period,  its  dominating  idea 
was  doubtless  that  of  a  gift  to  the  deity ;  as  such,  especially 

1  Cf.  Moore's  excellent  article,  'Sacrifice',  H.  Bi.,  cols.  4217,  4218. 

2  Ex.  xxii.  29,  xxxiv.  20;  cf.  Micah  vi.  7:  'Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for 
my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?' 

3  Gen.  xxii.  The  beloved  son  is  to  be  a  burnt-offering,  not  a  sin-offenug. 
The  object  of  the  sacrifice  is  attained  (verse  12)  when  Abraham  shows  himself 
willing  to  make  it.  '  Thus  early  was  the  truth  taught  that  the  essence  of 
sacrifice  is  the  moral  disposition  '  (Skinner,  ad  loc). 

4  See  more  fully  on  this  subject  chaps,  vii.  §  3  and  viii.  §  5.  The  term 
rendered  'guilt-offering  '  implies  compensation,  not  the  suffering  of  a  penalty. 
The  phrases  suggesting  to  us  the  latter  are  clearly  figurative. 


148     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

in  the  form  of  the  burnt-offering,  it  made  atonement  by- 
propitiating  Him,  whilst  the  peace-offering  helped  the 
worshipper  to  reaUse  his  commmiion  with  his  God.  Prac- 
tically all  the  Old  Testament  offerings  take  the  form  of 
food,^  and  the  usual  accompaniments  of  meals — salt,  wine, 
oil — are  often  combined  with  the  sacrifices,  reminding 
us  that  once  these  were  meals.  Originally,  the  idea 
would  be  that  the  deity  profits  by  the  food  Hke  some 
superior  to  whom  a  tribute  is  brought ;  thus  the  smell  of 
Noah's  sacrifice  is  agreeable  to  Yahweh.^  In  the  post-exihc 
period  such  primitive  ideas  would  be  left  behind,  together 
with  the  anthropomorphism  which  they  imply,  though  the 
practices  which  they  explain  continued  as  features  of 
the  ritual.  We  shall  perhaps  keep  nearest  to  the  atti- 
tude and  thought  of  the  worshipper  in  this  later  period, 
by  remernbering  the  emphasis  which  the  Priestly  Code 
places  upon  the  precise  performance  of  the  ritual.  The 
whole  conception  of  sacrifice  falls  under  the  category  of 
revelation ;  this  is  the  way  God  has  commanded  sacrifice 
to  be  offered,  and  when  it  is  offered  in  this  prescribed  way 
the  worshipper  effectually  draws  near  to  God.  Probably 
the  ordinary  worshipper  concerned  himself  no  more  with 
the  precise  meaning  of  his  acts  beyond  this  attitude  of 
obedience,  than  does  the  ordinary  worshipper  at  the 
present  day.^  It  was  sufficient  that,  through  the  due 
performance  of  the  ritual,  the  IsraeHte  was  confident  of 
a  real  approach,  if  not  one  made  with  boldness,  to  the 
throne  of  holy  grace. 

3.  Worship  in  the  Psalter 

The  worship  of  the  temple  centred  in  the  daily  morning 
and  evening  sacrifices.     In  the  post-exilic  period  it  was 

1  Incense  is  first  named  in  the  times  of  Jeremiah  (vi.  20)  and  Ezekiel 
(viii,  11),  It  was  used  at  the  Elephantine  Jewish  temple,  according  to  the 
letter  sent  to  Jerusalem  in  408  (Staerk,  Alie  und  Neue  Aramdische  Pavvri. 
p.  28).  ^^    ' 

2  Gen.  viii.  21.  »  Cf.  Bennett,  Post-Exilic  Prophets,  p.  324. 


VI.]  THE  APPEOACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  149 

the  chief  task  of  the  priests  *  to  offer  burnt-offerings  unto 
Yahweh  upon  the  altar  of  burnt- offering  continually 
morning  and  evening,  even  according  to  all  that  is  written 
in  the  law  of  Yahweh  '.^  Notwithstanding  tlje  great 
development  of  individual  rehgion,  it  was  primarily 
through  this  sacrifice  for  the  whole  community  that  the 
Israehte  approached  God.  There  were,  of  course,  many 
private  offerings  in  addition  ;  but  Israel's  daily  worship 
centred  in  this  great  act,  as  the  worship  of  the  whole 
year  eventually  centred  in  the  Day  of  Atonement.^  We 
must  remember  that  the  temple  had  a  unique  place  after 
the  Exile.  In  it,  and  through  it,  the  nation's  whole 
worship  was  brought  to  a  focus.  The  synagogue  is 
named  but  once  in  the  Old  Testament,^  and  we  know 
practically  nothing  of  its  rise  and  early  development. 
But  the  primary  obiect  of  this  important  feature  of  the 
later  Judaism,  which  may  date  from  the  Exile  itself,  was 
not  worship,  but  instruction.  For  worship,  the  temple 
claimed  a  unique  and  unchallenged  place.* 

If  we  would  understand  the  spiritual  significance  and 
inner  meaning  of  this  temple-worship,  we  must  turn  to 
the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  is  frequently  called  the  hymn- 
book  of  the  second  temple.  This  title  expresses  a  real 
though  partial  truth.  Some  parts  of  the  Book  of  Psalms 
are  clearly  intended  for  liturgical  use,  and  the  inference 
is  corroborated  by  later  Jewish  tradition.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  must  not  think  of  the  Psalter  as  a  hymn-book 
in  the  hands  of  the  worshipping  congregation  ;  certain 
parts  of  it  are  rather  to  be  regarded  as  anthem-books  in 
the  hands  of  the  Levitical  choirs,  to  the  rendering  of  which 

1  1  Chron.  xvi,  40 ;  cf.  2  Kings  xvi.  15. 

2  Notice  the  sense  of  a  great  calamity  when  a  plague  of  locusts  had  made  it 
impossible  to  provide  for  the  daily  sacrifices  (Joel  i.  9). 

»  Ps.  Ixxiv.  8. 

4  On  the  significance  of  the  Jewish  temple  at  Elephantine,  and  the  later 
temple  at  Heliopolis,  see  note  1  to  p.  137.  Eccltsiasticus  1.  should  be  read,  in 
order  to  gain  a  vivid  conception  of  the  enthusiasm  which  the  worship  of  the 
temple  inspired. 


150     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

the  ordinary  worshipper  would  listen,  and  respond  at 
intervals.  Many  Psalms,  however,  do  not  belong  to  this 
category  ;  even  if  they  were  adapted,  by  suitable  changes, 
for  use  in  pubhc  worship,  they  seem  to  have  originated 
in  private  devotion. ^  Like  our  own  hymn-books  of  to-day, 
the  Psalter  has  been  enriched  by  contributions  inspired 
in  very  different  circumstances.  To  this  cathohcity  of 
origin  must  be  largely  due  its  cathohcity  of  devotion,  for 
Jewish  religion  covered  Jewish  hfe.  It  is  possible,  indeed 
probable,  that  it  contains  pre-exiUc  elements.  But  as  it 
lies  before  us,  it  is  primarily  the  witness  to  that  spiritu- 
aUty  of  worship  which  gathered  around  the  temple  sacri- 
fices after  the  Exile.  No  just  view  of  Jewish  rehgion 
can  be  gained  by  any  one  who  does  not  see  the  Psalter 
written,  so  to  speak,  in  parallel  columns  with  the  Book 
of  Leviticus. 

In  this  way,  the  Book  of  Psalms  raises  implicitly,  and, 
indeed,  in  some  cases  exphcitly,  one  of  the  perennial 
problems  of  the  Church — the  relation  between  the  sacri- 
ficial or  sacramental  approach  to  God,  and  that  approach 
which  makes  all  outward  acts  secondary  to  the  personal 
attitude  of  the  worshipper.  The  exphcit  contrast  of 
these  historic  conceptions,  which  divide  Christianity 
into  two  great  camps,  is  made  only  in  three  or  four  places 
in  the  Psalter ;  but  it  does  not  seem  possible  to  explain 
these  away,  so  as  to  reconcile  them  with  the  fervent 
acceptance  of  sacrifice  and  ritual  in  the  rest  of  the  book. 
We  hear  the  echo  of  the  voices  of  the  great  prophets  ^ 
in  such  words  as  these  : 

*  Sacrifice  and  meal-ofi'ering  Thou  hast  no  delight  in  .  .  . 
Burnt-offering  and  sin-offering  Thou  hast  not  required '  (xl.  6). 

1  There  was  the  less  difficulty  in  making  the  transition  from  the  *  I '  of 
personal  religion  to  the  collective  expression  of  worship,  because  the  personi- 
fication of  the  nation  as  a  siugle  person  is  frequent  in  Hebrew  literature,  as 
well  as  in  such  solemn  forms  as  the  Priestly  Blessing  (Num.  vi,  23-26)  and  the 
Decalogue.     See,  further,  chap.  viii. 

2  Is.  i.  11 ;  Hos.  vi.  6,  etc.  :  of.  1  Sam.  xv.  22. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  151 

•Should  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls, 

Or  drink  the  blood  of  he-goats?'  (1.  13). 
'  Thou  delightest  not  in  sacrifice,  else  would  I  give  it, 

Thou  hast  no  pleasure  in  burnt-offering. 

The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit : 

A  broken  and  a  contrite  heart,  O  God,  Thou  wilt  not  despise ' 
(li.  16,  17).  ^ 

But  these  plain  avowals  form  the  exception  rather  than 
the  rule  in  the  Psalter.  In  general,  and  in  spite  of  the 
great  variety  of  religious  mood  represented,  there  is  a 
common  acceptance  of  the  temple- worship  as  the  necessary 
and  sufficient  means  of  approach  to  Yahweh.  The  passion 
that  has  found  such  noble  expression  for  all  time  in  the 
84th  Psalm  has  surely  risen  through  the  particular  to 
the  universal.  The  worshipper  who  could  so  realise  the 
joy  of  standing  on  the  threshold  of  the  earthly  house  of 
his  God  1  has  surely  learnt  to  worship  God  in  spirit  and 
in  truth,  though  he  has  never  faced  the  issue  which  is 
presented  in  the  Catholic  and  Protestant  conceptions  of 
worship.  We  may  say  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  as  a  whole, 
that  it  is,  like  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  a  compromise 
between  the  priestly  and  the  prophetic  ideals  of  religion, 
with  their  different  ideas  of  what  holiness  is.  But  whereas 
the  practical  outcome  of  the  Deuteronomic  compromise 
was  to  confirm  and  establish  the  most  elaborate  ritual  of 
antiquity,  the  religion  of  the  Psalter  has  smitten  the 
temple  rock  that  a  fountain  of  living  water  for  Christian 
faith  might  flow  for  ever.  The  presence  of  the  Psalter 
in  the  Bible,  and  its  close  relation  to  the  worship  of  the 
temple  in  the  post-exilic  period,  must  at  least  preclude  any 
idea  that  the  Jewish  approach  to  God  was  unspiritual.^ 

The  Book  of  Psalms  may  justly  be  regarded  as  a  collec- 
tion of  prayers,  even  more  than  as  a  Hturgy  of  praise. 

1  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  10. 

^  The  modern  reader  of  the  Book  of  Psalms  tends,  in  one  direction,  to 
exaggerate  its  '  spirituality  ',  since  he  usually  does  not  give  the  full  value  to 
the  references  to  sacrifice,  the  house  of  God,  the  music  of  the  worship,  etc. 


152     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

The  conception  of  prayer  in  the  earliest  period  of  Israel's 
religion  is  perhaps  not  misrepresented  by  that  of  the 
Arab  who  finished  his  prayers,  whilst  on  a  robber-raid, 
by  saying,  '  0  my  Lord  !  I  say  unto  Thee,  except  Thou 
give  me  a  camel  to-day  with  a  water-skin,  I  would  as  it 
were  beat  Thee  with  this  camel-stick  !  '  It  was  natural 
for  the  man  to  say  in  the  evening,  when  he  had  gained 
his  wish,  '  Now  ye  may  know,  fellows,  ye  who  blamed 
me  when  I  prayed  at  dawn,  how  my  Lord  was  adread  of 
me  to-day  !  '  ^  However  exceptional  may  be  the  out- 
spoken utterance  of  such  an  attitude,  there  is  something 
much  akin  to  it  in  primitive  conceptions  of  prayer.  The 
invocation  of  the  supernatural  power  is  not  what  it  so 
often  becomes  in  modern  prayers,  a  conventional  form  ; 
it  is  the  utterance  of  a  secret  name  which  gives  a  con- 
straining power  over  the  person  addressed.  Prayer  of 
this  kind  belongs  to  the  circle  of  primitive  ideas  to  which 
also  belong  blessings  and  curses  and  oaths.  It  involves 
a  superstitious  behef  in  the  magical  power  of  the  spoken 
name,  just  as,  when  prayer  is  Hnked  to  vows,  it  may  be 
no  more  than  a  bargain  struck  with  an  unseen  dealer.  It 
need  hardly  be  said  that  the  Book  of  Psalms  rises  far  above 
such  primitive  conceptions.  Yet  it  must  owe  something 
of  its  own  pecuUar  intensity  to  the  soil  from  which  it  has 
sprung.  These  unpromising  elements  have  been  trans- 
formed into  a  deep  reverence  for  the  very  name  of  God, 
and  a  sense  of  such  living  intercourse  with  Him,  that  He 
can  be  approached  as  a  Person,  close  at  hand,  ready 
to  respond,  faithful  in  His  promises. 

The  spiritual  outlook  of  prayer  and  praise  in  the  Psalter 
is  very  wide.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  consciousness 
of  an  adequate  seK-revelation  of  God  through  His  provi- 
dence on  the  one  hand,  and  His  written  law  on  the  other. 
The  providence  of  God  is  visible  in  the  whole  course  of 
Israel's  history,  the  things   '  which  we  have  heard  and 

1  Doughty,  Arabia  JDeserta,  ii,  p.  241. 


VI.]  THE  APPROACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  153 

known,  and  our  fathers  have  told  us'  (Ps.  Ixxviii.).  It 
is  also  visible  in  the  natural  world,  where  His  manifold 
works  display  His  wisdom  and  His  glory  (civ.).  In  one 
Psalm  (xix.),  the  revelation  of  the  natural  world  is  placed 
side  by  side  with  the  companion  revelation  of  the  written 
law ;  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  His 
perfect  law  restores  the  soul.  The  happy  man  is  he  who 
delights  in  that  law  and  meditates  in  it  day  and  night 
(i.  2),  whilst  the  longest  of  all  Psalms  is  devoted  to  the 
joy  that  written  law  can  minister  : 

*  Thy  statutes  have  been  my  songs 
In  the  house  of  my  pilgrimage '  (cxix.  54), 

Through  the  natural  world  and  the  written  law,  then, 
the  worshipper  feels  that  he  has  access  to  God ;  in  these, 
God  has  come  forth  to  meet  him,  and  to  hold  communion 
with  him.  But,  in  the  second  place,  the  Psalter  is  pro- 
foundly conscious  of  the  great  barriers — sin  and  death. 
He  who  would  be  a  guest  in  God's  house,  approach- 
ing Him  in  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary  and  finding  Him 
there,  must  have  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  (xxiv.  4)  ; 
he  must  be  one  who  walks  uprightly  and  works  righteous- 
ness (xv.  2).  Evil  cannot  be  a  guest  with  Him  (v.  4), 
for  His  hoUness  is  now  recognised  as  predominantly  a 
moral  quaUty,  a  truth  which  the  prophets  had  urged. 
But  sin  is  not  the  only  barrier  ;  the  gates  and  bars  of 
Sheol,  the  land  of  the  departed,  are  only  too  effectual 
in  robbing  man  of  any  approach  to  God  : 

*  The  dead  praise  not  Yah, 

Neither  any  that  go  down  into  silence'  (cxv,  17). 

*  In  death  there  is  no  remembrance  of  Thee, 

In  Sheol  who  shall  give  Thee  thanks  ? '  (vi.  5). 

*  Shall  the  shades  arise  and  thank  Thee  ? 
Shall  Thy  kindness  be  told  in  the  grave, 

Thy  faithfulness  in  Destruction?'  (Ixxxviii.  10,  11). 

It  is  here  that  one  of  the  greatest  differences  between 
the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  and  that  of  the  New  is 


154     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

apparent ;  the  approach  to  God  is  temporally  as  well 
as  morally  limited.  The  Hmit  set  by  death  accentuates  the 
great  problem  in  the  post-exiUc  period — that  of  retribution, 
which  is  the  third  great  topic  of  the  Psalter.  How  can  the 
moral  government  of  the  world  be  justified,  when  it  is 
apparent  that  the  wicked  prosper  ?  Does  not  a  fatal 
doubt  arise  as  to  the  divine  equity,  and  hinder  man  from 
that  perfect  trust  of  communion  with  God  which  is  the 
finest  product  of  Israel's  rehgion  ?  It  was  in  this  realm 
of  thought  that  one  of  Israel's  chief  contributions  to 
rehgion  was  destined  to  be  made — in  that  interpretation 
of  suffering  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Gospel  of 
the  Cross  of  Christ.  The  pecuhar  quahties  of  Old  Testa- 
ment rehgion  were  here  concentrated  on  a  definite  issue, 
so  important  as  to  call  for  separate  consideration. ^  This 
was  the  arena  on  which  the  victory  of  faith  had  to  be  won, 
not  by  Job  alone,  but  by  all  those  who  were  Israehtes 
indeed.  For  'faith',  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  always 
'  trust ',  confidence  in  the  everlasting  arms  of  God  as  a 
sure  support.  Abraham  is  its  great  exemplar  in  Hebrew 
story,2  and  'in  the  Psalms,  "trust"  is  the  character- 
istic attitude  of  the  soul  towards  God  '.^  This  inner- 
most quality  of  the  worship  of  the  Psalter  is  closely  related 
to  the  conception  of  moral  hohness  in  which  the  Old 
Testament  approach  to  God  is  seen  to  culminate. 

4.  Moral  Holiness 

It  is  characteristic  of  Hebrew  morality  that  its  prin- 
ciples should  be  presented  as  laws  of  God,  not,  in  the  manner 
of  Greek  ethics,  as  ideals  of  man.  Even  that  handbook 
of  Jewish  morahty  which  we  call  the  Book  of  Proverbs, 
in  which  conduct  is  more  detached  from  rehgion  than 

1  See  the  following  chapter,  especially  §  3. 

2  Abraham's  trust  is  made  the  basis  of  Yahweh's  approval  of  him  (Gen. 
XV.  6  ;  on  the  sense  of  '  righteousness '  here,  see  chap.  vii.  §  1).  In  Hab.  ii.  4 
'  faith '  should  be  rendered  *  faithfulness '. 

3  Cheyne,  in  E,  Bi.,  col.  1496. 


VI.]  THE  APPEOACH  OF  MAN  TO  GOD  155 

anywhere  else  in  the  Old  Testament,  maintains  that  the 
fear  of  Yahweh  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom  (ix.  10) .  Israel's 
prophets  do  not  say  simply  that  the  summum  honum  of 
human  hfe  is  justice  and  mercy ;  they  add  the  typical 
religious  virtue  of  humility,  and  present  them  all  as  the 
requirements  of  Yahweh.^  '  Thus  saith  the  high  and 
lofty  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  Holy  : 
I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is 
of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit '.^  This  humihty  before 
God,  issuing  in  practical  obedience  to  Him,  is  man's  true 
life,  the  scope  of  which  is  not  sufficiently  indicated  in  the 
'  Ten  Commandments '.  They  do  indeed  identify  morality 
with  rehgion,  in  the  spirit  of  the  eighth-century  prophets  ; 
but  the  morality  is  negative,  the  sins  are  crimes,  and  there 
is  a  want  of  that  inwardness  of  obedience  which  is  the 
Hfe-breath  of  the  deepest  righteousness.  As  a  summary 
of  Old  Testament  ethics,  the  thirty-first  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Job  is  greatly  preferable  to  the  Decalogue,  as  a 
fine  interpreter  of  Hebrew  thought  has  pointed  out.^ 
These  '  moral  ideals '  of  Job  (as  Greece  has  taught  us  to 
say),  which  are  for  him  the  laws  of  God,  begin  with  the 
rejection  of  the  inward  motions  of  desire  towards  sexual 
sin,  in  a  way  that  makes  us  remember  Christ's  condemna- 
tion of  even  the  look  of  lust.  They  place  in  the  forefront 
the  duty  of  justice  to  dependents  and  the  helpless,  enforced 
with  a  most  striking  declaration  of  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  They  pass  beyond  the  letter  of  justice  into  the  spirit 
of  humanity  towards  the  fatherless  and  the  stranger. 
They  rise  almost  to  the  height  of  the  New  Testament 
injunction  to  love  our  enemies,  for  Job  invokes  a  curse 
upon  himself, 

'  If  I  rejoiced  at  the  destruction  of  him  that  hated  me, 
Or  hfted  up  myself  when  evil  found  him '  (verse  29). 


1  Micah  vi.  8.  2   is.  Ivii.  15. 

3  Duhm,  Das  Buck  Hiob,  p.  145  ;  cf.  Gray,  The  Dwine  Discipline  of  Israel, 
p.  102. 


156     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

No  one  who  reads  this  great  chapter  thoughtfully  can 
fail  to  reaUse  the  fine  conception  of  human  Hfe  which  Ues 
behind  it.  But  there  is  much  more  here  than  a  moral 
conception  of  hfe.  The  very  point  of  the  chapter  is  that 
it  describes  a  relation  of  man  to  God,  conceived  almost 
throughout  in  purely  moral  terms.  The  remark  made 
by  Josephus  is  essentially  true  in  principle,  though  it 
antedates  the  results  of  a  gradual  development :  '  Moses 
did  not  make  rehgion  a  part  of  virtue,  but  he  saw  and 
ordained  other  virtues  to  be  parts  of  rehgion  '.^ 

Whilst,  in  this  way,  morahty  is  conceived  from  the 
standpoint  of  religion,  it  is  not  less  true  of  their  inter- 
relation to  say  that  rehgion  is  conceived  from  the  stand- 
point of  morahty.  The  notable  contribution  of  the 
prophets  of  Israel  has  not  been  considered  in  any  detail 
in  this  chapter,  simply  because  it  has  been  so  prominent 
elsewhere.  It  is  enough  to  refer  to  that  vision  of  Isaiah 
in  the  temple  which  constituted  his  call  to  service.  This 
illustrates  better,  perhaps,  than  any  other  passage,  except 
the  '  guest '  Psalms  (p.  153),  the  cardinal  transformation  of 
the  idea  of  hohness  through  the  prophetic  consciousness. 
Isaiah  sees  Yahweh  of  Hosts  enthroned  in  the  outer  court 
of  the  temple,  amid  the  seraphim  who  proclaim  His  hoh- 
ness. The  first  thought  of  the  prophet  is  of  his  own 
unworthiness  to  behold  this  vision.  But  the  purging 
of  his  sin  leaves  him  finely  responsive  to  Yahweh's  pur- 
pose, thrilling  in  sympathy  with  Yahweh's  voice.  Thus 
he  receives  the  call  to  such  service  as  is  itself  an  ever- 
advancing  approach  to  God,  and  is  brought  to  proclaim  a 
rehgion  that  has  morahty  at  its  very  core. 

The  clearest  and  noblest  example  of  spiritual  approach 
to  God,  after  this  great  pattern,  is  that  of  the  prophet 
Jeremiah.  His  autobiography,  marked  by  convincing 
sincerity  and  the  finest  spiritual  piety,  is  the  best  thing 

1  Contra  Apionem,  chap.  ii.  §  17  (vol.  iv.,  p.  344  of  Whiston's  translation, 
ed.  1822). 


vl]  the  APPEOACH  of  man  to  god  157 

to  which  we  could  point  when  we  would  say,  '  This  is 
Israel's  rehgion  at  its  highest'.  We  see  him  shrinking 
in  humiUty  from  the  call  to  ministry  (i.  6),  overcome  by 
the  awful  majesty  of  the  divine  power  (iv.  23  f.),  seeking 
in  vain  for  hke-minded  men  (v.  1  f.).  We  hear  his  pas- 
sionate protests  against  a  thankless  task,  and  that  divine 
encouragement  that  bids  him  take  the  precious  from  the 
vile,  his  best  from  his  worst,  in  order  to  become  the  very 
mouth  of  God  (xv.  18,  19).  We  feel  the  heat  of  that 
burning  fire  of  conviction  which  was  aflame  vnthin  him, 
and  would  not  let  him  be  silent  (xx.  9).  We  rise  with 
him  to  the  knowledge  of  a  new  covenant,  a  divine  revela- 
tion that  shall  be  spiritual  in  the  deepest  sense,  because 
impressed  on  the  innermost  spirit  of  man  (xxxi.  31  f.). 
Doubtless,  such  detachment  as  his  from  the  external 
means  of  grace  was  very  exceptional,  though  its  existence 
must  not  be  forgotten  when  we  consider  the  range  and 
possibiHties  of  Old  Testament  faith.  Few  could  stand 
apart  from  the  temple  and  distinguish,  as  he  did,^  the 
essence  of  rehgion  from  that  expression  of  it  which  the 
temple-worship  afforded.  The  ideals  of  Ezekiel,  his 
younger  contemporary,  were  destined  to  prevail  in  Judaism 
— the  priestly-prophetic  vision  of  a  city  bearing  the  name 
'  Yahweh  is  there ',  and  of  a  land  fertiUsed  by  hving  streams 
that  issued  from  under  the  threshold  of  the  temple.^ 

In  these  two  prophets  there  is  presented,  as  clearly  as 
was  possible  for  Old  Testament  rehgion,  the  ever-recurrent 
problem  in  the  approach  of  man  to  God.  The  history 
of  the  sacraments  within  the  Christian  Church  continually 
raises  the  antithesis  between  sacramental  rehgion  and 
personal  or  '  spiritual '  religion.  Between  the  two  extremes 
of  an  utter  denial  of  the  worth  of  the  sacramental,  and  an 
absolute  assertion  of  its  objective  value,  there  has  been 
room  for  many  varieties  of  individual  emphasis.  This 
must  have  been  the  case  in  Israel's  approach  to  God  along 
1  jer.  vii.  4.  ^  Ezek.  ilviii.  35 ;  xlvii.  1. 


158      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

the  twofold  road  of  the  inner  and  the  outer  world.  The 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  stands  in  the  New  Testament  to 
remind  us  that  Israel's  reUgion,  even  in  its  external  forms, 
could  become  a  not  unworthy  setting  for  the  figure  of 
Christ.  But  a  greater  than  its  author  stands  by  the  well  of 
Sychar  to  place  the  emphasis  where  it  must  always  eventu- 
ally fall  in  the  highest  rehgion,  the  religion  which  worships 
God  who  is  Spirit,  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Incalculably 
great  as  can  be  the  service  rendered  by  the  outer  forms,  yet 
for  such  a  spiritual  reUgion  it  is  service,  not  sovereignty. 
The  master-thought,  to  which  the  transformation  of  the 
idea  of  holiness  in  the  Old  Testament  leads  up,  is  the 
benediction  on  the  pure  in  heart* 


Yii.]      THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         159 


CHAPTER  YII 

THE   PROBLEMS   OF   SIN   AND  SUFFERING 

Paul's  words  at  Athens— '  What  therefore  ye  worship 
in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto  you  '—might  well  stand 
as  a  motto  for  the  proud  confidence  of  early  Christianity, 
as  it  faced  the  seeker  after  truth.  The  confidence  was 
justified,  if  only  because  of  the  new  fight  which  the  Christian 
Gospel  had  thrown  on  the  significance  of  morafity,  and 
on  the  hidden  glory  of  a  Cross.  The  dawn  of  that  fight 
is  already  to  be  seen  in  the  Old  Testament,  but  before 
the  sun  rises  on  Israel  there  is  the  darkness  of  strife  with 
an  unknown  God.  Israel's  persistent  purpose,  in  presence 
of  the  problems  of  sin  and  suffering,  won  a  blessing  for  the 
world,  the  greatness  of  which  is  reafised  only  when  some 
fragment  of  the  past  shows  the  paralysis  of  ancient  refigion, 
through  its  sense  of  an  inexpficable  mystery  at  the  heart 
of  things.  Take,  for  example,  one  of  the  Babylonian 
Psalms  : 

*What,   however,  seems  good  to  one,  to  a  god  may  be  dis- 
pleasing. 

What  is  spurned  by  oneself  may  find  favour  with  a  god. 

Who  is  there  that  can  grasp  the  will  of  the  gods  in  heaven  ? 

The  plan  of  a  god  is  full  of  mystery,— who  can  understand  it? 

How  can  mortals  learn  the  ways  of  a  god  *? 

He  who  is  still  alive  at  evening  is  dead  the  next  morning.      ^ 

In  an  instant  he  is  cast  into  grief,  of  a  sudden  he  is  crushed  .1 

Such  a  passage  indicates  very  clearly  the  way  in  which 

the  problems  of   sin  and  of  suffering  arose  for  Semitic 

1  The  translation    is  Jastrow's    in  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and 
Assyria,  p.  333. 


160     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

religion.  Sin  is  that  which  is  displeasing  to  the  gods ; 
suffering  is  the  sign  of  their  displeasure.  As  long  as  the 
divine  nature,  and  therefore  the  divine  will,  remain 
unknown  to  man,  uncertainty  attaches  both  to  the  con- 
duct and  to  the  interpretation  of  life.  What  is  sin  ? 
or,  in  the  more  concrete  form  of  the  problem  for  ancient 
rehgion,  what  acts  or  states  are  sinful  ?  Here  it  is  of 
course  necessary  to  put  aside  our  modern  assimilation  of 
morahty  and  religion.  The  sinful  act  might  or  might 
not  be  also  an  immoral  act ;  the  essential  feature  of  '  sin  ' 
was  that  it  displeased  the  gods.  Further,  how  can  man 
win  forgiveness  for  his  sins  ?  What  can  man  do  to  change 
the  divine  displeasure  into  approval,  and  to  cancel  the 
acts,  possibly  done  in  ignorance,  by  which  offence  has 
been  given  ?  These  are  the  elementary  questions  that 
arise  in  all  forms  of  religion  which  are  above  a  certain 
level  of  culture.  But  the  reUgion  of  Israel  advanced  to 
further  and  deeper  questions,  which  were  raised  through 
its  emphasis  on  morahty.  How  is  it  that  the  (morally) 
innocent  are  found  to  suffer,  as  though  they  are  still  dis- 
pleasing to  Him  whose  requirements  are  beheved  to  be 
moral  ?  How  does  moral  evil  begin  to  be,  under  a  divine 
government  antagonistic  to  it  ?  These,  then,  are  the  four 
chief  problems  of  sin  and  suffering  encountered  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Its  solutions  will  be  reviewed  in  the  four 
corresponding  sections  of  this  chapter,  viz.  :  (1)  Sin  and 
Retributive  Suffering ;  (2)  Forgiveness  and  '  Righteous- 
ness ' ;  (3)  The  Suffering  of  the  Innocent ;  (4)  The  Cosmic 
Problem  of  Evil.  They  may  all  be  regarded  as  different 
appUcations  of  that  clearer  experiential  knowledge  of  God 
which  Israel  acquired  in  the  course  of  its  history. 

1.  Sin  and  Retributive  Suffering 

The   characteristic   idea  of  sin  in   the  Old  Testament 
is  that  of  rebelHon  against  a  superior,  taking  the  specific 


VII. J       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFEllING         161 

form  of  disobedience  to  the  moral  law  which  Yahweh 
requires  of  man.  This,  at  least,  is  the  prophetic  doctrine 
of  sin,  and  two  famihar  passages  from  the  prophets  suffi- 
ciently illustrate  it.  Through  the  hps  of  Isaiah,  Yahweh 
reproaches  Israel  in  the  words  :  '  Sons  I  have  brought 
up  and  reared,  and  they  have  rebelled  against  me'.^  A 
prophet  of  the  same  period  declares  :  '  He  hath  shown 
thee,  O  man,  what  is  good  ;  and  what  doth  Yahweh 
require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justice,  and  to  love  mercy,  and 
to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  '  ^  Other  terms,  besides 
those  which  imply  '  rebeUion ',  are  used  to  describe  sin  ; 
it  is  a  deviation  from  the  right  way,  it  is  an  act  which 
places  its  doer  in  the  position  of  one  found  guilty  before 
the  judgment-seat  of  Qod,  it  is  something  intrinsically 
evil.^  But,  broadly  speaking,  the  idea  of  sin  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  that  of  the  prophets — disobedience  to  the 
moral  requirements  of  God.  The  Son  of  God  employs 
their  figure,  and  famiharises  us  with  their  teaching,  when 
He  represents  sin  as  essentially  the  '  lawlessness '  of  the 
disobedient  son,  the  moral  evil  of  the  unbrotherly  spirit. 

Not  less  fundamental  to  the  prophetic  rehgion  is  the 
idea  of  suffering  as  the  just  recompense  and  reward  of 
sin,  its  necessary  accompaniment  in  the  moral  government 
of  the  world  by  Yahweh.  Almost  any  chapter  of  the  pro- 
phetic writings  illustrates  the  appHcation  of  this  principle. 
Amos,  for  example,  refers  to  a  series  of  contemporary 
cases  of  suffering— famine,  drought,  the  destruction 
of  the  harvest,  pestilence,  defeat  in  battle,  earth- 
quake—as warning  penalties  preparatory  to  Yahweh's 
final  judgment  on  sin.*  Yahweh  declares  through  Hosea, 
*  I  will  punish  them  for  their  ways,  and  will  reward  them 
their  doings '  ;  '  Israel  hath  cast  off  that  which  is 
good  :    the  enemy  shall  pursue  him  '.^     '  Wherefore  will 

1  Is.  i  2.  ^  Micah  vi.  8. 

3  See  H    W.  Robinson,  The  Christian  Doctrine  oj  Man,  pp.  43  f.  ;  more 

fully,  Schultz,  Old  Testament  Theology  {E.T.),  ii.  pp.  281-91.  *  iv.  6-12. 

6  iv.  9  •  viii.  3.    Hosea  also  dwells  on  the  disciplinary  purpose  of  suffering. 


162      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

ye  yet  be  smitten  ?  '  asks  Isaiah,  '  (wherefore)  continue  in 
your  defection  ?  '  ^  Micah  says  of  Israel's  rulers,  '  They 
build  up  Zion  with  blood,  and  Jerusalem  with  iniquity. 
.  .  .  Therefore  shall  Zion  for  your  sake  be  ploughed  as 
a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become  heaps'.^  The  same 
principle  of  retributive  moral  government  underhes  the 
whole  of  Deuteronomy,  based  as  this  book  is  on  the  pro- 
phetic teaching  of  the  previous  century  ;  ^  it  is  apphed 
to  interpret  the  past  history  by  those  writers  called 
'  Deuteronomistic ',  who  gave  to  that  history  its  present 
form.  We  meet  with  the  same  direct  and  obvious  appeal 
to  facts  in  the  teaching  of  Haggai,  who  asserts  that  the 
sufferings  of  the  returned  exiles  are  due  to  delay  in  re- 
building the  temple.*  In  truth,  the  place  and  influence 
of  the  prophets  are  largely  due  to  the  power  of  this  appeal, 
which  conscience  admitted,  and  the  history  of  the  nation 
confirmed. 

This  simple  and  straightforward  doctrine  of  sin  and  suffer- 
ing is  clearly  Hnked  to  the  prophetic  idea  of  God.  But 
when  the  Old  Testament  as  a  whole  is  under  review,  two 
important  quahfications  of  this  doctrine  must  be  made, 
relating  respectively  to  the  idea  of  sin  in  itself,  and  to 
the  range  of  responsibihty  for  it.  There  was  a  certain 
extemahsm  in  the  earher  morahty  which  was  destined 
to  reappear  in  much  of  the  legalism  of  Judaism.  The 
morahty  of  primitive  peoples  is  largely  tribal  custom, 
due  to  the  pressure  of  the  whole  group  upon  the  indi- 
vidual, and  enforced  by  means  of  'taboos'.  The  point 
of  view  of  such  '  customary '  morahty  may  be  seen  in  the 
words  '  no  such  thing  ought  to  be  done  in  Israel ',  through 
which  Tamar  protests  against  Amnon's  outrage,  or  in 
Nabal's  churhsh  refusal  of  the  usual  '  tribute '.^  Such 
customs,  moral  and  non-moral,  naturally  pass  under  the 

1  i.  5  (Gray's  trans.,  Comm.,  p.  6).  2  iii.  IQ,  12. 

8  Cf.,  in  particular,  chap,  xxviii.  *  i.  5  f. 

»  2  Sam.  xiii.  12  :  1  Sam.  xxv.  39. 


VII.]      THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING        163 

protection  of  the  tribal  god,  who  may  exert  himself  to 
uphold  them.  But  this  external  relation  is  something 
very  different  from  the  prophetic  identification  of  morahty 
with  the  true  worship  of  Yahweh.  The  way  is  left  open 
for  any  act  to  pass  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  deity, 
by  some  purely  artificial  taboo,  or  for  positively  immoral 
acts  to  remain  outside  his  range  of  action,  because  tribal 
or  national  custom  has  not  condemned  them.  Both  these 
kinds  of  Umitation  may  be  illustrated  from  the  history 
of  the  early  monarchy.  Jonathan's  unwitting  breach  of 
the  taboo  placed  by  his  father  on  all  food  until  the  even- 
ing of  the  battle  of  Beth-aven,  resulted  in  the  silence  of 
the  oracle  of  Yahweh,  and  is  described  as  '  sin  '  ;  in  fact, 
Saul  would  rehgiously  have  slain  his  son,  in  fulfil- 
ment of  his  oath,  had  not  the  people  intervened.^ 
Nathan's  parable  is  represented  as  reveahng  David's 
conduct  towards  Uriah  in  an  entirely  new  Hght  to  the 
king  himself ;  the  private  wrong  to  a  subject,  which  was 
a  king's  privilege,  is  shown  by  the  prophet  to  be  a  'sin', 
i.e.  a  wrong  done  to  Yahweh.  Such  an  example  is  the 
more  instructive,  because  it  shows  the  wide  gulf  which 
must  usually  have  existed  between  prophetic  and  popular 
religion.  But  there  are  Hmitations  in  regard  to  the  idea 
of  sin,  in  the  writings  even  of  the  prophets,  as  when 
Ezekiel  includes  a  purely  physical  reference  in  a  hst  of 
sins.2  The  same  inclusion  of  much  that  is  non-moral 
in  the  idea  of  '  sin '  survives  into  not  a  few  of  the  com- 
mands of  the  post-exilic  Law,  such  as  that  which  enjoins 
a  sin-offering  after  childbirth.^  Such  features  should  be 
clearly  distinguished  from  Hmitations  of  the  morahty 
itself,  when  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  a  higher  moral 
culture. 

The    second    important    quahfication    of    the    general 
prophetic  doctrine  of  sin  and  suffering  follows  from  the 
idea  of  'corporate  personafity',  which  has  already  been 
1  1  Sam.  liv.  «  Ezek.  xviii.  6.  '  Lev.  xii.  6. 


164     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

noticed.^  The  modem  mind  is  instinctively  repelled  by 
the  treatment  of  a  group  of  innocent  persons  as  not  only 
legally  responsible  for,  but  even  actually  contaminated 
by,  the  act  of  one  of  their  number  ;  our  sense  of  individu- 
alistic moraUty  makes  such  a  doctrine  untenable.  But 
that  idea  seems  to  have  been  accepted  in  Israel  without 
question  until  the  time  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  when 
the  moral  claims  of  the  individual  asserted  themselves. 
The  eventual  consequence  of  this  individuahsm  was  that 
the  doctrine  of  retributive  suffering  as  the  penalty  of  sin 
broke  down.  It  was  one  thing  to  proclaim  that  doctrine 
and  see  its  sufficient  verification  when  the  corporate  per- 
sonaHty  of  the  nation  was  primarily  in  view  ;  it  was  quite 
another  to  enforce  it  as  true  for  every  individual  member 
of  that  nation,  since  experience  so  often  contradicted 
the  doctrine.  So  arose  the  special  problem  of  innocent 
suffering  (see  §  3). 

2.  Forgiveness  and  *  Righteousness  * 

The  forgiveness  of  sins,  like  so  many  other  of  the  Old 
Testament  ideas,  can  be  understood  only  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  covenantal  relation  between  Yahweh  and 
Israel.  This  relation  virtually  existed  from  the  time  of 
Israel's  deUverance  from  Eg3^t,2  though  its  moral  and 
spiritual  content  was  not  fully  unfolded  until  the  time  of 
the  great  prophets.  When  they  proclaimed  the  moral 
demands  of  Yahweh,  they  did  not  conceive  Him  as  a  cold 
and  unimpassioned  Judge,  but  as  Israel's  King,  Father, 
Husband,  actively  concerned  to  maintain  the  covenantal 
relation,  even  when  it  had  been  broken  by  Israel's  sin. 
What  He  seeks,  above  all  else,  is  the  restoration  of  that 
relation  by  Israel's  penitence  and  renewed  righteousness. 
Consequently,  He  is  always  ready  to  forgive  the  penitent, 
though  men  may  put  off  repentance  too  long,  and  find 

1  Chap.  iv.  §  3.  8  Chap.  viii.  §  1. 


VII.]       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING        165 

themselves  overtaken  by  the  day  of  Yahweh  and  His 
destruction  of  the  sinners.  The  prophetic  idea  of  the  for- 
giveness of  sin  would  be  quite  misunderstood  if  approached 
through  any  elaborate  '  plan  of  salvation  ',  involving  condi- 
tions which  must  be  satisfied  before  Yahweh  is  free  to 
forgive.  The  prophets  did  not  think,  with  Augustine,  of 
a  ransom  to  be  paid  to  the  devil,  or,  with  Anselm,  of  a 
debt  to  God's  honour  to  be  discharged,  or,  with  the  Pro- 
testant Reformers,  of  a  penal  satisfaction  to  be  rendered, 
before  grace  was  free  to  prevail.  The  prophets  of  the 
eighth  century  do  not  even  insist  on  sacrifice  as  a  condi- 
tion or  means  of  forgiveness,  so  that  their  attitude  is  very 
different  from  that  impHed  in  the  later  Levitical  system 
of  offerings  necessary  to  the  restoration  of  ceremonial 
holiness.  They  think  of  a  direct  personal  relation  between 
Yahweh  and  Israel  not  destroyed,  though  challenged, 
by  Israel's  sin.  The  sins  of  IsraeHtes  are  thrown  into 
more  striking  rehef  by  contrast  with  this  permanent  back- 
ground of  Yahweh' s  gracious  purpose  concerning  Israel. 
The  vision  of  that  purpose  is  itself  a  motive  to  penitence 
and  obedience,  not  far  removed  in  spirit  and  aim  from 
that  of  the  New  Testament  Gospel.  Yahweh  has  taken 
the  initiative  by  sending  His  prophets.  Above  a  people 
that  will  not  listen  to  them,  engrossed  as  it  is  in  the  de- 
spatch of  embassies  across  the  desert,  and  confident  as 
it  is  in  its  resources  for  the  day  of  battle.  He  is  waiting 
His  opportunity  to  be  gracious,  and  rising  from  His  throne 
to  show  compassion.^ 

The  direct  simpKcity  of  this  prophetic  appeal  for  peni- 
tence, with  the  stated  or  impHed  truth  that  forgiveness 
is  ready  for  the  asking,  needs  httle  illustration,  because 
it  is  so  central  and  familiar  in  the  utterances  of  the  prophets. 
'  Seek  good,  and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  five ',  says  Amos, 

1  Is.  XXX.  18.  This  verse  should  probably  begin  the  section  that  follows, 
rather  than  end  that  which  precedes,  to  which  reference  is  made  above  ;  but 
the  collocation  of  such  sections,  even  when  they  are  by  different  writers,  is 
not  without  meaning. 


166     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

'and  so  Yahweh,  the  God  of  hosts,  shall  be  with  you  as 
ye  say  '.^  Hosea  compares  right  conduct  with  the  work 
of  the  farmer  on  his  land,  and  the  divine  response  with 
the  rain  that  falls  from  heaven,^— so  naturally  and  simply 
Unked  are  penitence  and  forgiveness.  Deutero-Isaiah 
gathers  up  his  evangeUcal  promises  and  exhortations  to 
the  exiles  of  Babylon  in  a  concluding  chapter  of  invita- 
tion (Is.  Iv.),  which  has  properly  become  a  classic  for  a 
yet  fuller  Gospel.  He  promises  welcome  into  a  renewed 
and  everlasting  covenant,^  springing  directly  from  the 
gracious  purpose  of  Yahweh.  It  is  to  the  loving-kindness 
of  such  a  covenantal  relation  that  the  deepest  penitence 
appeals  for  pardon,  in  the  confidence  that  the  sufficient 
sacrifice  is  a  broken  and  a  contrite  heart.* 

But  Israel,  as  we  have  seen,^  had  other  sacrifices.  In 
the  earHer  period,  the  worshipper  brought  some  gift  to 
the  deity  as  naively  as  he  would  have  done  to  some  earthly 
superior  who  might  be  offended  with  him.  This  may 
be  illustrated  by  David's  words  when  protesting  against 
Saul's  treatment  of  him  :  '  If  Yahweh  has  instigated  thee 
against  me,  let  Him  smell  an  offering  '.^  The  deepened 
consciousness  of  sin  in  the  post-exihc  period  was  reflected 
in  its  sacrificial  system.  It  has  been  shown  that  none 
of  the  sacrifices  impHes  penal  substitution,  or  makes 
any  provision,  at  least  in  theory,  for  those  who  have 
sinned  intentionally  against  God.  Intentional  sin  is 
itself  an  act  of  self-exclusion  from  the  covenant  of  God 
with  Israel,  and,  ideally,  deserves  death.  The  sacrifices 
operate  within  the  covenant ;  they  were  '  offered  to  a 
God  already  in  relations  of  grace  with  His  people.  They 
were  not  offered  in  order  to  attain  His  grace,  but  to  retain 
it '.'    Within  this  circle  of  free  grace  the  priest  is  said 


1  V.  14.  »  X.  12.  »  Is.  Iv.  3. 

4  Ps.  li.  1,  17.  5  Chap.  vi.  §  2. 

«  1  Sam.  xxvi.  19  ;  cf.  Ex.  iv.  24-26. 

f  Davidson,  The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  316,  317. 


VII.]       THE  PKOBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         167 

to  '  atone  '  {i.e.  '  cover  ')  the  sin  by  means  of  the  sacrifice.^ 
Yet  the  sacrifice  is  not  ultimately  essential  to  forgiveness, 
for  atonenient  can  be  made  in  other  ways,  as  Moses  pro- 
poses to  make  it  through  personal  intercession  for  Israel, 
or  as  Phinehas  made  it  by  slaying  the  Israelite  and  the 
Midianite  woman,  or  as  when  God  is  asked  to  '  cover ',  i.e. 
forgive,  sin  for  His  name's  sake.^  We  must  not  argue 
from  the  elaboration  of  sacrificial  detail  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  an  equally  elaborate  theory  of  atonement.  Of 
the  post-exiHc  sacrificial  system  it  is  probably  true  to  say 
that  '  The  one  really  essentially  point  in  the  whole  cere- 
mony of  sacrifice  is  the  confession  of  sin,  whether  that  is 
done  through  an  act  or  expressly  in  a  solemn  form  of 
words  '.3  To  recognise  this  is  to  understand  how  such 
wealth  of  prophetic  teaching  as  the  Book  of  Psalms  con- 
tains could  gather  around  the  temple- worship.  The 
sacrificial  system,  in  fact,  popularly  expressed  much  that 
the  prophets  demanded.  The  difference  between  prophet 
and  priest  was  less  one  of  theory,  and  more  one  of  prac- 
tical emphasis,  than  is  often  represented.  For,  whilst 
the  emphasis  of  the  prophets  usually  fell  on  the  moral 
conditions  of  penitence  and  obedience,  that  of  the  priests 
marked  the  promise  of  divine  grace,  when  Yahweh  was 
approached  in  the  duly  prescribed  manner. 

The  deficiencies  of  the  Old  Testament  idea  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  sins  spring  not  so  much  from  the  excesses  of  an 
unspiritual  sacramentarianism,  or  from  the  lack  of  an 
adequate  sense  of  divine  redemption,  as  from  difficulties 
in  the  individual  appropriation  of  the  covenant  made  with 
the  nation.  How  could  the  individual  Israehte  be  sure  that 
the  covenant  was  vital  and  unbroken  for  himself  ?  What 
pledge  did  he  possess  that  his  own  sin  was  forgiven,  even 

1  For  the  usages  of  the  important  word  rendered  'atone',  i.e.  kipper,  see 
Driver's  DeMterunomy,  pp.  425,  426  ;  more  fully  discussed  in  Herrmann,  Di9 
Idee  der  Siihne  im  Allen  Testament. 

2  Ex.  xxxii.  30 ;  Num.  xxv.  13  ;  Ps.  Ixxix.  9. 

»  Schultz,  Old  Testament  Theology  (E.T.),  ii.  p.  100. 


168     EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

though  he  had  never  questioned  the  reality  of  the  cove- 
nantal  relation  between  Yahweh  and  Israel — a  relation 
signed  and  sealed  by  redemptive  acts  in  history,  and  a 
revealed  ritual  of  worship  ?  Here  we  reaUse  one  of  the 
great  hmitations  of  the  Old  Testament  over  against  the 
w^  New — the  absence  of  that  direct  individual  relation  to 
God,  which  is  offered  to  the  Christian  without  other 
necessary  mediation  than  that  of  the  eternal  High  Priest. 
It  is  in  the  person  of  Jeremiah  that  we  see  individual 
rehgion  in  its  fullest  Old  Testament  development,  and  it  is 
in  Jeremiah's  writings  that  we  read  of  a  new  covenant, 
framed  to  meet  this  deficiency  in  the  covenant  with  the 
nation.  The  new  covenant  is  to  be  inward  and  individual, 
giving  to  every  heart  the  direct  knowledge  that  its  iniquity 
is  forgiven,  and  its  sin  remembered  no  more.^  In  the 
absence  of  such  an  inner  covenant,  the  one  ultimate 
test  of  forgiveness  was  that  of  '  righteousness ',  i.e.  the 
prosperity  which  showed  divine  approval.  The  idea  of 
'  righteousness'  is  not  to  be  confused  with  that  of  'morahty ', 
or  that  of  'hoUness'.  Morality  is  properly  actual  'right- 
ness '  of  conduct,  judged  by  the  customs  of  the  society. 
Holiness  is  properly  the  unapproachableness  of  God. 
But  the  primary  conception  in  the  idea  of  righteousness 
is  not  actual  rightness,  nor  Godhkeness ;  it  is  forensic,  a 
product  of  the  primitive  court  of  justice.^  '  There  is 
always  a  standard,  always  a  cause ;  a  man's  conduct  in 
a  particular  matter,  or  his  Hfe  as  a  whole,  is  in  question ; 
and  there  is  always  a  judge,  real  or  imaginary'.^  In  the 
realm  of  rehgion,  therefore,  the  righteous  man  is  not  the 
man  morally  perfect,  but  he  who  is  acquitted  at  the  bar 
of  God.  '  It  shall  be  righteousness  unto  us ',  proclaims 
the  Deuteronomic  exhortation,  '  if  we  observe  to  do  all 

1  xxxi.  34. 

2  But  this  must  not  be  taken  to  imply  that  righteousness  is  attained  or 
assigned  by  the  forensic  conceptions  of  Protestant  theology,  or  that  sacrifice 
is  interpreted  as  penal  substitution.     See  pp.  147,  177. 

3  Davidson,  The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  267. 


VII.]       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         169 

this  commandment  before  Yahweh  our  God  '.^  The 
corresponding  term  to  'righteousness'  is  therefore  'guilt', 
the  status  of  the  man  who  is  condemned  before  God. 
If  the  individual  Israelite  were  really  on  right  terms  with 
Israel's  God,  he  would  know  it  by  his  well-being  in  material 
things. 2  That  Psalm  which  describes  most  fervently  the 
happiness  of  the  forgiven  man  (xxxii.)  sees  the  evidence 
that  the  transgression  is  forgiven,  the  sin  covered,  in  the 
fact  that  the  illness  under  which  the  poet  groaned  was 
removed  after  his  penitent  confession  ;  this  attitude  is 
characteristic  of  Old  Testament  rehgion.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  such  an  external  view  of  the  relation 
between  God  and  man  might  lead  to  the  characteristic 
defects  of  the  later  Judaism.  '  It  is  able  to  say  much 
about  law  and  sin,  little  that  is  certain  about  God's  grace. 
.  .  .  What  is  said  of  the  compassion  and  the  fatherly 
love  of  God  is  as  good  as  not  said,  if  it  does  not  lead  to 
the  rejection  of  the  juristic  idea  of  the  relation  between 
God  and  man,  and  the  recognition  that  it  is  false  in  prin- 
ciple'.^ The  results  of  this  false  principle  in  Judaism 
are  focused  for  ever  in  our  Lord's  picture  of  the  Pharisee 
praying  in  the  temple  side  by  side  with  the  publican,  who 
had  so  much  less  in  moral  discipHne  to  bring,  yet  with 
a  spiritual  instinct  so  much  truer  cast  himself  on  the 
mercy  of  God  for  the  forgiveness  of  his  sin,  and  went 
down  '  justified  \  i.e.  as  one  acquitted  at  the  judgment- 
seat  of  God. 


3.  The  Suffering  of  the  Innocent 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  Old  Testament  religion  that 
its  central  problem  was  that  which  sprang  from  unde- 

1  vi  25 

2  Cf.  Davidson,  E.  Bi.,  col.  1158  :  *  the  old  view  of  the  Hebrew  mind,  which 
looked  on  prosperity  and  the  blessings  of  life  as  in  a  sense  sacramental,  as 
the  seal  of  God's  favour'. 

3  Koberle,  SUnde  und  Onade,  pp.  669,  672. 


170     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

served  suffering.  This  is  the  shadow  flung  by  the  bright 
light  of  the  prophetic  interpretation  of  Hfe.  TheimpUcit 
or  exphcit  monotheism  of  the  prophets  traced  all  human 
fortunes  to  one  common  centre — Yahweh.  At  the  same 
time,  their  emphasis  on  morahty  led  men  to  beHeve  that 
He  administered  human  affairs  on  moral  principles.  As 
a  result,  every  experience  of  suffering  was  ascribed  to  the 
direct  will  of  Yahweh,  and  interpreted  by  the  simple  and 
obvious  principle  of  moral  retribution.  '  Shall  evil  befaU 
a  city,  and  Yahweh  hath  not  done  it  ?  '  asks  Amos  (iii.  6), 
in  a  way  that  imphes  this  to  be  an  unanswerable  challenge, 
and  an  accepted  truth.  The  result  is,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  that  the  presence  of  suffering  implies  that  of  moral 
evil ;  Joel,  for  example,  builds  up  his  whole  prophecy 
around  the  visitation  of  a  plague  of  locusts,  clearly  point- 
ing to  the  need  for  such  heart-felt  repentance  as  may  move 
Yahweh  to  mercy. ^  This  penal  view  of  suffering  naturally 
admits  of  extension  to  the  idea  of  discipHne,  in  the  sense 
of  suffering  intended  to  produce  moral  improvement  in 
the  sufferer.  Such  was  the  suffering  of  Hosea's  wife, 
and  the  suffering  of  Israel  with  which  he  compares  it  (iii.) ; 
it  was  morally  deserved,  yet  its  purpose  was  more  than 
retributive.  In  this  sense,  it  is  perfectly  natural  that 
Ehphaz,  the  friend  of  Job,  whilst  maintaining  the  orthodox 
view  of  suffering  as  retributive,  should  also  suggest  that 
in  his  case  it  may  be  discipUnary  also  : 

*  Behold,  happy  is  the  man  whom  God  correcteth : 

Therefore  despise  not  thou  the  chastening  of  the  Almighty. 
For  He  maketh  sore,  and  bindeth  up ; 

He  woundeth,  and  His  hands  make  whole  '.^ 

This  interpretation  of  suffering  as  penal  or  disciplinary 
could  be  accepted  by  all  serious  minds  without  question, 

1  ii.  12-14;  cf.  Amosiv.  6-11. 

2  Job  V.  17,  18.  This  is  the  central  thought  in  the  speeches  of  Elihu  (Job 
xxxii.-xxxvii.),  afterwards  added  to  the  poem  chiefly  to  bring  ont this  principle 
of  discipline  more  clearly ;  cf.  also  Prov.  iii,  11,  12, 


VII.]       THE  PEOBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING        171 

so  long  as  the  religious  unit  was,  primarily,  the  nation. 
There  would  always  be  enough  evil  visible  in  the  national 
hfe,  past  or  present,  to  make  suiEfering  seem  just  to  the 
more  thoughtful  minds ;  that  it  was  shared  by  the 
righteous  and  the  unrighteous  was  amply  explained  by 
the  principle  of  the  solidarity  of  the  nation,  its  corporate 
personality  before  Yahweh.  But,  with  the  rise  of  the 
new  individuahsm,  this  explanation  of  suffering  was  no 
longer  adequate.  In  the  case  of  individual  men,  glaring 
inconsistencies  arose  between  the  apparent  deserts  and 
the  visible  fortunes.  Accordingly,  the  problem  of  unde- 
served suffering  finds  expression  first  of  all  in  the  prophet 
who  is  most  individuahstic  in  his  thought  and  experience 
— Jeremiah.  '  Wherefore  doth  the  way  of  the  wicked 
prosper  ?  '  he  asks,  without  finding  any  answer  (xii.  1), 
just  as  the  other  side  of  the  problem,  the  suffering  of 
innocence  in  his  own  person,  is  left  unexplained — '  Why 
is  my  pain  perpetual,  and  my  wound  incurable,  which 
refuseth  to  be  healed  ?  '  (xv.  18).  This  is  the  problem 
more  acutely  reahsed  than  any  other,  from  the  time  that 
individual  life  came  into  prominence  as  a  rehgious  unit, 
down  to  the  last  book  of  the  Old  Testament  to  be  written 
— Ecclesiastes.  To  carry  the  burden  of  this  mystery 
was  the  price  men  had  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  contri- 
buting to  the  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament ;  to  the  pain 
of  this  problem  we  owe  the  deepest  conception  of  piety, 
the  demand  for  a  Hfe  beyond  death,  the  development  of 
the  principle  of  vicarious  atonement.  No  more  striking 
instance  could  be  given  of  the  general  truth  that  true  ideas 
are  not  to  be  distilled  from  life  by  those  who  shrink  from 
the  heat  of  its  flames. 

If  we  exclude  discipHnary  suffering  as  being  simply  a 
natural  extension  of  penal  or  retributive  (an  extension 
ultimately  based  on  the  gracious  purpose  of  Yahweh),  then 
we  may  say  that  the  Old  Testament  offers  five  different 
attitudes  to  this  problem  of  the  suffering  of  the  innocent 


172     EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

(with  the  related  fact  of  experience,  the  prosperity  of  the 
wicked) .  These  five  attitudes,  in  logical,  though  not  chrono- 
logical order,  are  (1)  Wait !  (2)  There  may  be  hfe  beyond 
death  for  the  righteous;  (3)  Life  is  a  dark  mystery;  (4)  Life 
is  the  bright  mystery  of  a  divine  purpose  higher  than  our 
grasp  ;  (5)  The  suffering  of  the  innocent  may  avail  for 
the  guilty.  The  variety  of  these  suggestions  shows  how 
widely  the  problem  was  felt,  as  their  fruitfulness  shows 
its  intensity.  We  might  almost  write  a  history  of  Old 
Testament  rehgion  around  the  simple  account  of  its 
development. 

The  first  answer  declares  the  problem  to  be  temporary 
only ;  the  apparent  inconsistency  between  desert  and 
fortune  will  speedily  be  removed,  whether  by  what  we 
should  call  the  ordinary  course  of  events,  or  by  the  sudden 
manifestation  of  a  divine  judgment.  It  was  this  problem 
which  sent  Habakkuk  to  his  figurative  watch-tower : 
'  Thou  that  art  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil,  and  that 
canst  not  look  on  perverseness,  wherefore  lookest  Thou 
upon  them  that  deal  treacherously  ? '  The  vision  he  sees, 
for  the  appointed  time  of  which  he  must  wait,  is  that  of  the 
overthrow  of  arrogance,  and  of  the  maintenance  of  the  life 
of  the  upright  through  his  fidehty.^  Similarly,  the  author 
of  the  book  called  '  Malachi '  is  faced  by  those  who  say, 
'  Every  one  that  doeth  evil  is  good  in  the  sight  of  Yahweh, 
and  He  delighteth  in  them  ...  it  is  vain  to  serve  God  .  .  . 
yea,  they  that  work  wickedness  are  built  up  '.  The  answer 
is  that  God's  servants  have  their  names  recorded  in  a  book 
of  remembrance,  against  that  day  of  judgment  when  men 
shall  '  discern  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked, 
between  him  that  serveth  God,  and  him  that  serveth  Him 
not.'  2  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  judgment  is  an  event 
close  at  hand,  to  take  place  on  this  earth,  not  in  some 
distant  realm.  So,  also,  in  the  37th  Psalm,  where  the 
man  perplexed  by  this  problem  is  bidden  '  Fret  not  thyself 
M.  13;  ii.  3,  4.  2  a,  17  j  iii.  14,  15,18. 


VII.]       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING        173 

because  of  evil-doers  ',  but  to  rest  in  Yahweh,  and  wait 
patiently  until  His  delayed  judgment  shall  appear,  in  the 
passing  away  of  that  wicked  man  who  seemed  to  flourish, 
or  in  some  dramatic  vindication  of  righteousness.  *  I 
have  been  young ',  says  this  writer,  '  and  now  am  old  ; 
yet  have  I  not  seen  the  righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed 
begging  bread '.  In  other  words,  he  denies  the  existence  of 
the  problem  in  its  acutest  form,  the  suffering  of  the  innocent 
to  the  very  end  of  life. 

The  admonition  to  wait  for  the  vindication  of  Yahweh' s 
moral  government  of  the  world  had,  however,  to  face  the 
difficulty  that  man's  time  of  waiting  was  Umited  by  the 
inexorable  Une  drawn  by  death.  The  Hebrew  outlook 
on  Sheol  afforded  no  prospect  of  the  adjustment  of  desert 
beyond  the  grave.  Consequently,  the  pressure  of  the 
problem  compelled  some  men  to  put  the  question,  '  Can 
there  be  a  hfe  beyond  death  which  will  compensate  for 
the  inadequate  retribution  of  this  hfe  ? '  The  two  prin- 
cipal anticipations  of  faith  in  personal  immortahty— those 
of  Psalm  Ixxiii.  and  the  Book  of  Job  i— are  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  problem  of  suffering.  The  two  assertions 
of  resurrection  which  we  find  in  the  Old  Testament  ^  are 
due  to  the  same  demand  for  adjustment ;  there  must  be 
another  Ufe,  supematurally  restored,  though  still  to  be 
lived  on  this  earth.  Thus,  the  martyred  sufferers  for 
truth  to  whom  an  apocalyptic  writer  refers  are  to  be 
brought  back  to  Hfe  ;  the  faithful  in  the  Maccabaean  perse- 
cution are  similarly  to  be  restored  in  order  to  receive  their 
permanent  reward,  whilst  the  traitors  awake  to  receive  the 
due  punishment  escaped  in  their  previous  hfe.  In  the 
subsequent  apocalyptic  literature  of  Israel,  lying  outside  the 
Umits  of  the  Old  Testament,  this  solution  of  the  problem 

1  See  p.  96  for  the  characteristics  of  the  Hebrew  approach  to  iuimor- 
tality.  The  Greek  idea  of  immortality  rests  on  the  philosophical  belief 
that  reality  is  ultimately  spiritual  ;  cf.  the  volume  in  the  present  series, 
entitled  The  Christian  Hope  (pp.  36-45),  by  W.  Adams  Brown. 

2  Is,  xxvi.  19  ;  Dan.  xii.  2. 


174     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

of  suffering  occupies  a  central  place.  '  The  sufferings  of 
the  righteous  are  no  longer  viewed  as  the  consequence  of 
their  sins,  but  purely  as  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain  of 
events.  .  .  .  No  attempt  is  made  to  reconcile  the  mis- 
fortunes of  the  pious  with  the  righteousness  of  God  ;  the 
Gordian  knot  is  cut  by  the  simple  assertion  that  this 
world  is  essentially  bad,  and  that  for  the  solution  of  all 
enigmas  we  must  look  to  the  world  to  come  '.^ 

That  this  view  did  not  commend  itself  to  all  may  be 
seen  from  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes.  The  author  of  that 
book  exphcitly  denies  the  doctrine  of  a  future  Ufe.^  He 
is  left  face  to  face  with  a  world-order  which  admits  of  no 
moral  explanation  :  '  All  things  come  aHke  to  all :  there 
is  one  event  to  the  righteous  and  to  the  wicked  ;  to  the 
good  and  to  the  evil ;  to  the  clean  and  to  the  unclean ; 
to  him  that  sacrificeth  and  to  him  that  sacrificeth  not ; 
as  is  the  good,  so  is  the  sinner ;  and  he  that  sweareth 
as  he  that  feareth  an  oath  '.^  The  author  does  not  deny 
the  existence  of  God,  or  His  moral  character ;  he  simply 
confesses  that  this  wearisome  world,  in  which  all  is  vanity, 
presents  an  inexphcable  mystery  of  non-moral  happen- 
ings, a  mystery  without  hope  of  solution  by  man,  here  or 
hereafter. 

But  it  was  also  possible  for  other  men,  of  a  different 
temperament  and  outlook,  to  see  in  Ufe  a  mystery,  not 
of  darkness,  but  of  Ught.  This  is  essentially  the  answer 
reached  in  the  most  important  discussion  of  the  problem 
of  suffering  which  the  Old  Testament  contains — the  poem 
of  Job.  The  personal  fortunes  of  Job  are  intended  to 
exemphfy  that  fact  of  experience  which  constitutes  one 
side  of  the  problem  before  us — the  possibiHty  of  the  con- 
currence of  practical  innocence  with  terrible  suffering. 
The  explanation  of  this  suffering  as  retributive,  offered 

1  Fairweather,  The  Background  of  the  Gospels,^  p.  273. 

2  See  p.  98. 

3  Ecc.  ix.  2,  with  R.V.  mar.  ;  cf.  verse  11 :  Hime  and  chance  happenethto 
them  air. 


VII.]       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         175 

by  the  three  friends,  is  dismissed  as  quite  inadequate  ; 
the  extension  of  this  view,  that  the  suffering  is  disciplinary, 
offered  by  Eliphaz,  and  in  particular  by  the  additional 
speeches  of  Ehhu,  is  also  rejected  by  Job.  The  position 
reached  by  Job  himself,  after  the  tentative  longing  for 
the  restoration  of  his  hfe  after  imminent  death,  is  that 
of  a  direct  challenge  of  the  providence  of  God — a  chal- 
lenge that  is  at  the  same  time  an  appeal  to  the  heart  of 
God,  to  reveal  His  true  self  in  the  vindication  of  Job. 
The  speeches  of  the  Almighty,  describing  the  wonders  of  the 
universe,  seem  at  first  sight  away  from  the  point  of  the 
challenge.  Yet  they  must  have  been  intended  by  the 
author  of  the  poem  to  suggest  that  the  ways  of  God  are 
necessarily  a  mystery  to  the  human  mind,  a  mystery 
before  which  the  only  right  attitude  is  trustful  humility. 
This  Job  himself  acknowledges  in  the  final  chapter 
of  the  poem  (xHi.  1-6).  But  the  contribution  of  the 
book  as  a  whole  to  the  problem  of  suffering  certainly 
goes  beyond  this.  The  prose  prologue  (i.,  ii.)  and  epilogue 
(xHi.  7  f.)  may  possibly  have  been  incorporated  by  the 
author  from  an  independent  and  older  source,  but  they 
are  an  integral  part  of  the  work  as  he  left  it.  Now, 
in  the  epilogue,  besides  the  naive  restoration  to  Job  of 
twice  as  much  as  he  had  before,  Yahweh  repeatedly  speaks 
of  '  my  servant  Job',  and  declares  him  right  in  what  he 
has  said.  If  we  ask  what  was  the  service  which  the  suffer- 
ing Job  had  rendered,  we  are  thrown  back  to  the  opening 
scenes  of  the  book,  the  heavenly  court  in  which  Yahweh 
entrusts  the  cause  of  disinterested  reUgion  to  the  uncon- 
scious fideHty  of  Job.  The  very  point  of  the  book  is  the 
mystery  of  this  service;  the  suffering  must  be  borne 
under  the  pressure  of  an  ever-recurrent  and  finally  un- 
answered '  Why  ?  '  Neither  at  the  beginning  nor  at  the 
end  is  Job  admitted  to  the  secret  of  that  heavenly  court, 
which  would  be  an  adequate  explanation  of  his  suffering. 
But  the  author  of  the  book  asks  us  to  believe  that  there 


176     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

is  innocent  suffering  which  must  be  explained  on  these 
Hues — suffering  which  is  the  necessary  condition  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  deepest  piety.  The  service  could 
not  be  rendered  without  the  trial ;  its  issues  He  beyond 
the  horizon  of  the  man  who  is  tried.  Personal  religion 
has  intrinsic  worth  for  God,  whose  treatment  of  men 
belongs  to  a  higher  level  than  that  of  a  merely  juristic 
scheme  of  moral  government. 

Finally,  the  Old  Testament  reaches  its  deepest  solution 
of  the  problem  in  the  conception  that  the  suffering  of  the 
innocent,  so  often  inflicted  through  others,  may  also  be 
endured  for  others.  This  is  the  idea  incarnated  in  the 
figure  of  the  suffering  Servant  of  Yahweh,  the  noblest 
creation  of  Old  Testament  rehgion.^  The  view  here  taken 
of  that  great  figure  is  that  it  represents  Israel  the  nation,^ 
and  that  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  is,  for  historical 
exegesis,  a  philosophy  of  the  sufferings  of  the  nation,  in 
themselves  so  perplexing  to  national  pride  and  rehgious 
faith!  In  previous  related  passages,  the  Servant  is  depicted 
as  the  prophet  of  Yahweh,  patiently  and  quietly  teaching 
true  rehgion  to  the  nations,  wherever  the  beginnings  of 
true  desire  for  it  are  found  (Is.  xUi.  1-5).  The  Servant  is 
a  weapon  in  the  hand  of  Yahweh  ;  discouraged,  he  renews 
his  strength  in  the  thought  of  God.  His  mission  extends 
beyond  his  own  borders  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  (xHx.  1-7). 
The  Servant  is  trained  bj^  regular  and  conscious  fellow- 
ship with  Yahweh  to  speak  for  Him.  In  this  service  he 
suffers,  but  is  not  dismayed,  since  he  knows  God  to  be 
with  him  (1.  4-9).  At  last,  the  sufferings  of  the  Servant 
are  brought  to  an  end,  to  the  astonishment  of  other  nations. 
They  confess  that  they  never  thought  that  this  suffering 
nation  was  what  it  is  now  seen  to  be.  They  thought  the 
Servant  punished  for  his  o^\ti  sin  ;  they  now  see  that  these 

^  For  the  striking  parallels  between  Job  and  the  Servant,  see  Cheyne's 
Isaiah,  ii.,  Appendix  ix.,  pp.  259-68  (ed.  5). 
2  See  further,  on  this  point,  chap.  viii.  §  5. 


vii.J       THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         177 

sufferings  of  Israel  should  have  fallen  upon  themselves. 
He  has  become  an  offering  for  their  sin,  and  through  His 
apparent  defeat  He  has  attained  to  victory  (hi.  13-hii.  12). 
As  has  well  been  said,  '  The  fact  of  vicarious  atonement 
could  hardly  be  more  clearly  and  definitely  expressed  ; 
but  still  the  passage  does  not  provide  us  with  any  theory  ; 
it  does  not  say  why  God  should  forgive  sinners  because  an 
innocent  man  had  suffered  '.^  The  life  of  the  Servant  is 
compared  to  a  'guilt-offering'  {dshdm,  verse  10),  i.e.  a 
compensation  for  guilt,  but  this  does  not  prove  that  the 
idea  of  penal  substitution  is  present,  since,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  idea  cannot  be  proved  for  the  Hebrew  sacri- 
fices.2  In  any  case,  the  sacrificial  idea  is  combined  with 
that  of  the  moral,  i.e.  the  effect  of  these  sufferings  upon 
the  nations  who  witness  them.  The  importance  of  this 
interpretation  of  suffering  for  the  future  history  of  rehgion, 
and  especially  for  the  Pauhne  doctrine  of  Atonement,  can 
hardly  be  overrated. 

As  we  look  back  over  the  five  attitudes  or  solutions  to 
the  problem,  it  is  clear  that  the  second,  fourth,  and  fifth 
mark  a  real  advance  for  rehgion.  Besides  the  fundamental 
conception  of  suffering  as  penal  and  disciplinary,  which 
continues  to  hold  its  proper,  if  partial,  place  in  any  moral 
view  of  the  world,  there  is  (a)  the  reminder  that  the  portion 
of  life  we  see  is  incomplete,  and  affords  no  sufficient  data 
for  a  final  judgment,  (6)  the  idea  of  suffering  as  the  neces- 
sary test  and  manifestation  of  disinterested  rehgion,  and 
(c)  the  conviction  of  its  atoning  value  for  others.^ 

1  Bennett,  The  Post-Exilic  Prophets,  p.  327.  Cheyne  (Isaiah/^  ii.  p.  45) 
points  out  that  there  are  '  twelve  distinct  assertions  in  this  one  chapter  of  the 
vicarious  character  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Servant'. 

2  Chap.  vi.  §  2  ;  cf.  also  chap.  viii.  §  5.  .        , . .      .  mi 

3  Cf.  Peake,  The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  the  Old  Testament,  p.  144  :  The 
most  valuable  thing  the  Old  Testament  iias  to  offer  is  not  a  speculative  solu- 
tion. It  is  the  inner  certainty  of  God,  which  springs  out  of  fellowship  with 
Him,  and  defying  all  the  crushing  proofs  that  the  government  ot  the  world 
is  unrighteous,  holds  its  faith  in  Him  fast '. 


178     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

4.  The  Cosmic  Problem  of  Evil 

At  the  outset  of  this  chapter,  it  was  said  that  the  problems 
of  suffering  and  sin  within  the  rehgion  of  Israel  were  of  a 
practical,  not  of  a  speculative,  character.  The  arena  of 
the  discussion  was  the  visible  world,  where  man  stands 
face  to  face,  as  it  were,  with  Yahweh.  The  prophets 
taught  men  to  beheve  that  the  control  of  this  world  by 
God  was  absolute  and  unlimited.  The  nation  lay  in  His 
hand  as  the  clay  in  the  hand  of  the  potter.^  A  man's 
thoughts  are  his  own,  yet  their  issue  is  God's,  and  even 
moral  evil  is  made  to  serve  His  purpose.^  God  even, 
on  occasion,  moulds  men's  thoughts ;  He  hardens 
Pharaoh's  heart.^  He  sends  a  lying  spirit  into  the  mouth 
of  those  who  prophesy  in  His  name.*  Clearly,  there- 
fore, there  is  nothing  in  the  world  of  human  thought 
or  act  which  is  beyond  the  sovereignty  and  control  of 
God.  Yet  this  doctrine  of  divine  providence  is  accom- 
panied by  the  unbroken  recognition  of  man's  freedom  and 
responsibihty.  •  The  moral  aspect  of  sin  springs  from  this 
freedom  ;  the  challenge  of  Ehjah,^  implying  freedom  to 
choose  and  responsibihty  for  the  choice  made,  is  typical 
of  the  law  and  the  prophets  as  a  whole  ;  the  relation 
between  God  and  man  is  that  between  distinct  persons. 
To  ourselves,  who  approach  this  great  antithesis  of  religion 
in  the  Ught  of  many  centuries  of  speculation  about  it, 
psychological  and  metaphysical  problems  are  raised 
which  a  thinker  cannot  evade.  But  the  Old  Testament 
shows  no  consciousness  of  these ;  whilst  it  draws  the  full 
circle  of  divine  control,  it  superadds  a  segment  within 
which  human  freedom  and  human  responsibihty  are  very 
real. 

This  may  be  seen,  for  example,  from  the  story  of  the 
first  sin,  which  is  given  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis. 

1  Jer.  xviii.  1-12.  a  Prov.  xvi.  1,  4.  8  Ex.  iv.  21,  ix.  12. 

4  1  Kings  xxii.  23.  «  1  Kings  xviii.  21. 


vil]       the  problems  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         179 

It  requires  a  considerable  effort  to  realise  that  this  narra- 
tive does  not  necessarily  mean  all  that  later  theology  has 
read  into  it.  The  most  natural  interpretation  of  the 
story,  as  first  written  for  Hebrew  readers,  seems  to  be  that 
it  is  meant  to  explain  the  darker  conditions  of  human 
life,  the  painful  facts  of  daily  experience.^  Why  does  a 
man  earn  his  bread  and  a  woman  bear  her  children  in 
pain  and  sorrow  ?  Above  all,  why  do  men  die  ?  The 
natural  answer  of  a  Hebrew  thinker,  in  the  hght  of  what 
has  already  been  said,  is  that  this  suffering  necessarily 
points  to  sin  ;  these  are  the  consequences  of  man's  sin, 
inherited  from  the  time  of  the  first  man's  sin.  It  is  not 
said  that  Adam's  acquired  sinfulness  is  inherited  by  his  de- 
scendants ;  later  Jewish  theology  held  that  other  men  repeat 
Adam's  sin  because  their  nature  contains  a  tendency  to  sin 
hke  his.  The  interest,  in  fact,  does  not  he  where  later 
speculation  has  often  found  it,  in  the  origin  of  sin.  Sin  is 
assumed  to  spring  from  human  freedom,  exposed  to  tempta- 
tion, just  as  it  did  in  the  experience  of  the  writer  of  the 
narrative.  His  interest  hes  in  the  moral  explanation  of  ex- 
perience. At  the  same  time,  there  are  features  in  the  story, 
especially  the  emphasis  on  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
which  suggest  that  the  ultimate  form  of  the  myth  is  an 
explanation  of  the  progress  of  civiHsation,  the  discovery 
by  man  of  the  things  that  make  his  '  culture  '.^  This 
would  probably  become  plainer  if  we  possessed  the  parallel 
Babylonian  story,  which  may  fairly  be  assumed  to  have 
existed.  Some  future  fortunate  discovery  may  perhaps 
serve  to  show,  by  the  contrasted  tone  and  spirit  of  the 
Babylonian  myth,  the  characteristic  moral  emphasis  of 
the  Hebrew  narrative.  That  moral  emphasis  is  pre- 
sented with  special  reference  to  what  we  should  call  the 
psychology  of  adolescence.  The  instinctive  truth  of  the 
story  to  fife  is  seen  in  the  central  place  it  gives  to  the 

1  Cf.  Wellhausen,  Prolegomena,^  pp.  299  f. ;  Skinner,  Genesis,  pp.  94-7. 

2  Wellhausen,  op.  cit.,  p.  300. 


180     EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

mystery  of  the  sexual  relationship,  still  the  effective  test 
of  the  best  and  worst  in  human  life.  Thus  the  naive 
and  primitive  details  clothe  a  philosophy  of  hfe  in  the 
concrete  form  which  was  natural  to  the  early  Semitic 
mind  ;  and  that  philosophy  shows  its  kinship  with  pro- 
phetic teaching  by  its  central  moral  emphasis. 

The  practical  recognition  of  human  freedom  in  the 
story  of  Genesis  iii.  is  not  materially  affected  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  serpent  as  the  primary  instigator  of  evil. 
This  feature  of  the  story,  which  goes  back  to  primitive 
demonic  beUefs,  simply  provides  one  of  the  conditions  of 
the  temptation.  The  serpent  is  not  to  be  identified  with 
the  later  Satan  ;  it  simply  shows  the  wider  '  supernatural ' 
environment  of  human  life,  which  finds  such  abundant 
illustration  in  demonology  and  magic.  There  is  also  the 
impUcation  that  there  are  unseen  spectators  of  the 
drama,  who  are  addressed  by  Yahweh  when  He  says, 
'Behold,  the  man  is  become  as  one  of  us'.  These  are 
doubtless  the  Elohim,  the  '  sons  of  God ',  or  members 
of  the  heavenly  court,  whom  we  see  gathered  around 
Yahweh  in  the  prologue  to  the  Book  of  Job.^  Amongst 
them  is  'the  Adversary'  [Hassdtdn),  who  challenges  the 
disinterested  piety  of  Job,  and  is  allowed  to  test  it  by 
his  suffering.  The  office  of  '  pubhc  prosecutor '  in  such 
conditions  may  be  an  unpleasant  one,  but  the  person  who 
discharges  it  is  still  one  of  the  '  sons  of  God  '.  '  The 
Adversary '  discharges  a  somewhat  similar  function  in 
the  scene  portraying  Joshua  the  high  priest,  clothed  in 
filthy  garments.^  Here,  also,  though  in  more  direct 
manner,  his  accusation  is  repelled.  .  We  come  upon  a 
decided  development  in  the  idea  of  this  personage  in 
the  later  passage,  1  Chron.  xxi.  1,  where  '  Satan '  has 
become  practically  a  proper  name  (without  the  article). 
The  interest  of  this  passage  for  our  subject  Hes  in  the  fact 

1  i.  6,  ii.  1 ;  cf.  xxxviii.  7.    A  parallel  scene  is  described  in  1  Kings  xxii.  19  f. 

2  Zech.  iii.  1  f. 


VII.]      THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING        181 

that  it  is  a  parallel  to  2  Sam.  xxiv.  1,  which  says  that 
Yahweh  moved  David  to  number  Israel  (an  act  bringing 
speedy  punishment),  because  His  anger  was  kindled 
against  them.  In  the  later  version  of  this  incident,  given 
in  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  this  instigation  is  transferred 
from  Yahweh  to  Satan.  This  revision  of  the  earUer 
statement  is  significant  of  the  development  in  the  ideas 
of  both  Yahweh  and  Satan.  The  identification  of  Satan 
with  the  serpent  of  Genesis  iii.  does  not  seem  to  be  made 
before  the  apocrjrphal  Book  of  Wisdom,  where  we  read  : 
'  By  the  envy  of  the  devil,  death  entered  into  the  world  '.^ 
The  later  apocalyptic  literature,  as  is  well  known,  is 
characterised  by  remarkable  developments  in  the  con- 
stitution of  this  supernatural  world.  Multitudes  of 
angels,  good  and  evil,  unf alien  and  fallen,  throng  to  the 
leadership  of  God  and  Satan,  and  form  two  opposing 
kingdoms,  a  conception  we  may  safely  connect  with  Persian 
influence. 2  But,  for  the  Old  Testament  at  any  rate, 
this  division  is  not  a  duahsm,  in  the  Zoroastrian  form. 
Other  beings,  demonic  or  angelic,  may  influence  man's 
life,  but,  hke  man,  they  are  all  creatures  of  Yahweh,  and 
subordinate  to  Him.  They  simply  extend  the  realm  in 
which  the  scene  of  man's  life  is  cast.  The  '  sons  of  God ' 
are  free  to  obey  or  to  disobey  Yahweh  ;  one  obscure 
passage  in  the  Old  Testament  tells  that  they  fell  through 
love  of  '  the  daughters  of  men  \^  as  Adam  fell  through  Eve. 
The  demons  and  heathen  gods  of  antiquity,  when  absorbed 
by  Yahwism,  and  made  subordinate  to  Yahweh,  vastly 
extend  the  human  outlook  into  cosmic  possibilities,  as  is 
illustrated  by  the  Book  of  Daniel ;  but  they  do  not  alter 
the  essential  problems  of  sin  and  suffering,  as  Hebrew 
thought  encountered  them. 

Mi.  24.     This  book  belongs  to  the  first  century  B.C. 

2  The  Miltonic  Satan  is  a  post-canonical  development ;  see  Bertholet,  Bib. 
Theologie  des  Alien  Testaments^  ii.  pp.  374-95. 

3  Gen.  vi.  1-4. 


182     BELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

John  Stuart  Mill  spoke  of  '  the  impossible  problem  of 
reconciHng  infinite  benevolence  and  justice  with  infinite 
power  in  the  Creator  of  such  a  world  as  this  '.^  There  are 
moods  and  experiences  in  which  many  men  will  feel  that 
the  existence  of  suffering  is  a  reflection  on  the  goodness 
of  God.  On  the  other  hand,  God's  benevolence  may  be 
saved,  at  the  cost  of  His  omnipotence,  as  it  was  by  Mill 
himself,  and  suffering>  may  be  ascribed  to  causes  Ijdng 
outside  the  divine  causahty.  This  is  an  idea  of  suffering 
which  underhes  popular  thought  more  often  than  is  usually 
reahsed.  Yet  again,  it  might  be  argued  that  suffering  is 
the  outcome  of  a  bhnd  universe,  guided  by  no  teleological 
principle,  grinding  out  its  products  with  no  regard  to 
those  who  suffer  in  the  process.  Of  these  three  distinct 
modem  attitudes  the  Old  Testament  illustrates  the  first, 
as  in  Job's  doubts  as  to  the  righteousness  of  God  ;  it  rises 
above  the  second  by  its  strong  theistic  emphasis,  making 
a  duahsm  or  quasi-duaHsm  of  Nature  and  God  impossible  ; 
it  was  without  the  necessary  pre-suppositions  for  the 
third,  because  '  second  causes '  had  not  come  in  to  dis- 
place the  'first  cause',  and  Nature  without  God  would 
have  been  an  impossible  conception  to  the  mind  of  Israel. 

The  same  general  tendencies  of  Israel's  thought  differen- 
tiate its  consciousness  of  the  problems  of  moral  evil  from 
that  of  to-day.  Modern  thinkers  relate  moral  evil  to  the 
principle  of  divine  immanence,  through  which  it  becomes 
a  transient  stage  of  development  to  the  ideal ;  or  to  the 
social  environment,  as  that  which  is  opposed  to  'the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number '  ;  or  to  the  animal  past  of 
mankind,  from  which  we  '  move  upward,  working  out 
the  beast'.  All  these  ways  of  accounting  for  moral  evil 
yield  different  conceptions  of  its  nature.  But  Israel's 
thought  did  not  turn  on  this  question  of  origin.  Moral 
evil  in  the  Old  Testament  was  sin ;  it  is  related  to  God 
as  the  transgression  of  a  law.  This  way  of  conceiving 
1  Essay  on  Theism,  Part  ii.  (p.  80  of  ed.  1904). 


VII.]      THE  PROBLEMS  OF  SIN  AND  SUFFERING         183 

sin,  by  preserving  intact  the  personality  of  both  man  and 
God,  maintained  the  reahty  of  moral  evil ;  the  painful 
problem  for  Israel's  thinkers  was  whether  sin  might  escape 
its  due  punishment,  and  this  fall  instead  upon  the  innocent. 
Instead  of  the  elaborate  array  of  'principahties  and  powers, 
world-rulers  of  this  darkness,  spiritual  hosts  of  wicked- 
ness in  the  heavenly  places ',  which  later  Jewish  thought 
bequeathed  to  the  early  Christians,  we  have  woven 
around  man  a  network  of  quite  different  scientific  and 
philosophic  ideas.  The  result  is  not  wholly  gain,  if  the 
later  conceptions  conceal  what  the  earlier  reveal — the 
essential  truth  of  human  freedom  and  responsibihty. 


184     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   HOPE   OF  THE   NATION 

MoENiNG  by  morning,  from  the  steps  of  the  temple,  the 
ministering  priests  proclaimed  the  ancient  benediction  : 

*  May  Yahweh  bless  thee,  and  guard  thee, 
May  Yahweh  make  bright   His  face  toward  thee,   and  be 

gracious  to  thee. 
May  Yahweh  lift  up  His  face  toward  thee,  and  appoint  for 

thee  well-being'.^ 

The  continuity  in  the  use  of  the  benediction  may  fitly 
represent  the  longer  continuity  of  the  national  faith. 
Yahweh  was  the  God  of  Israel,  and  Israel  the  people  of 
Yahweh,  from  the  day  of  the  great  deliverance  from 
Egjrpt.  Out  of  that  national  faith  sprang  the  hope  of  the 
nation,  its  confidence  in  Yahweh' s  ultimate  purpose  to 
bless  His  people.  One  of  the  wonderful  things  in  the 
religion  of  Israel  is  the  vitaHty  of  this  hope  through  chang- 
ing fortunes,  and  amid  overwhelming  disasters,  as  dis- 
played in  its  adaptability  and  recuperative  powers,  its 
re-interpretation  of  the  methods  of  God  without  for- 
feiture of  faith  in  His  redemptive  purpose.  That  which 
the  New  Testament  declares  of  a  single  generation  is  not 
less  true  of  the  thousand  years  of  Israel's  varied  history — 
'  This  is  the  victory  that  hath  overcome  the  world,  even 
our  faith  '.^ 

1  Num.  vi.  24-26 ;  cf.  the  Mishnah,  Tamid,  vii.  2. 

2  The  Targum  to  the  '  Song  of  Songs'  enumerates  nine  of  the  'ten'  great 
songs  of  the  world,  and  characteristically  adds,  'The  tenth  song  the  exiles  will 
sing  on  leaving  their  exile '.    The  exiles  of  Israel  were  always  '  prisoners  of 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  185 

In  our  previous  study  of  the  religious  ideas  bom  in  the 
course  of  that  history,  we  have  frequently  noticed  that 
it  is  the  nation  as  a  whole  which  is  primarily  Hnked  to 
Yahweh  in  this  reciprocal  relation  of  human  trust  and 
divine  help.  Even  when  the  dissolution  of  political 
unity  at  the  Exile  introduced  a  new  individual  relation 
to  God,  this  individuaUsm  was  still  interpenetrated  by 
the  old  social  values,  and  indeed  never  lost  them,  as  the 
individuaUsm  of  the  New  Testament,  its  ultimate  issue, 
amply  proves.  The  nationaUstic  consciousness  of  religion 
in  Israel  is  something  very  different  from  the  individual- 
istic outlook  of  Protestantism  ;  we  come  nearer  to  it, 
perhaps,  in  some  aspects  of  Catholicism,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  the  '  Brotherhood '  movements  of  the  present 
time,  on  the  other.  In  the  priestly  benediction  which 
has  just  been  quoted,  although  the  second  person  singular 
is  used,  the  nation  as  a  whole,  not  the  individual  Israelite, 
is  primarily  addressed.  The  many  passages  in  which 
Israel  is  treated  as  a  single  person  consequently  impl}^  much 
more  than  a  mere  poetic  personification.  We  must  read 
into  them  those  ideas  of  'corporate  personahty'  which  have 
already  been  emphasised  ;  we  must  think  of  Israel  as  being 
actually  treated  as  a  person  by  Yahweh,  and  as  conscious 
of  itself  with  a  sort  of  personal  self-consciousness,  which 
goes  far  to  explain  such  a  striking  conception  as  that 
of  Israel  being  the  '  Servant  of  Yahweh  '.  '  When  Israel 
was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him,  and  called  my  son  out  of 
Egypt'.  .  .  .  'Hear,  0  Israel;  thou  art  to  pass  over 
Jordan  this  day.  .  .  .  Three  times  in  the  year  all  thij 
males  shall  appear  before  Yahweh.  .  .  .  Many  a  time 
have  they  afflicted  me  from  my  youth  up,  let  Israel  now 
say'.^     This   self -consciousness  of  Israel  passed   through 

hope '  (Zech.  ix.  12).    Contrast  the  spirit  of  their  captors :  '  The  fear  of  divine 
anger  runs,  as  an  undercurrent,  throughout  the  entire  religious  literature  of 
Babylonia    and    Assyria'    (Jastrow,    ReUgioiis    Bdief  in   Babylonia    and 
Assyria,  p.  326). 
1  Hos.  xi.  1 ;  Deut.  ix.  1  ;  Ex.  xxiii.  17;  Ps,  cxxix.  1. 


186     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

various  phases,  to  some  of  which  the  term  '  national '  is 
not  strictly  appUcable.  It  was  called  into  being  through 
the  miHtary  organisation  of  a  group  of  tribes  under  the 
leadership  of  Moses  ;  it  became  pohtical  under  David  and 
Solomon ;  after  the  Exile  it  became  ecclesiastical  and 
rehgious  under  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  Yet  there  is  a  real 
unity  which  binds  together  these  successive  develop- 
ments, a  'projected  efficiency',  not  less  efficient  because 
it  was  of  faith.  Because  Israel  belongs  to  Yahweh,  and 
can  depend  on  Him,  it  has  a  future.  The  hope  in  this 
future,  springing  from  the  faith  in  Yahweh,  again  and 
again  brings  renewed  strength,  and  becomes  the  chief 
instrument  in  the  maintenance  of  the  '  national '  exist- 
ence. It  is  true  that  the  nationahsm  which  made  faith 
and  hope  strong  sometimes  narrowed  love  to  the  circle 
of  Israel,  or  even  of  faithful  Israel.  Moreover,  the  forms 
in  which  the  hope  of  the  future  clothed  itself  are  often 
to  us  strangely  inadequate  to  a  spiritual  rehgion.  Yet 
it  is  to  Israel's  hope  that  we  owe  the  bringing  in  of  the 
Christian  hope  ;  for  that  hope  is  the  pulse  of  Israel's  vital 
strength,  the  inspiration  of  its  continued  Hfe. 

1.  The  Covenant 

The  basis  of  Israel's  hope  is  the  pecuHar  relation  which 
exists  between  itself  and  Yahweh,  already  expressed  in 
the  statement  that  Yahweh  is  Israel's  God,  and  Israel 
is  Yahweh's  people.  This  relation  is  said  to  have  been 
made  explicit,  from  the  earhest  days,  in  the  form  of  a 
'  covenant '  {berith)  between  Yahweh  and  Israel.  In  a 
certain  sense,  '  all  rehgious  ceremonial  and  worship  is  the 
expression  of  a  covenant  relationship  between  men  and 
gods  '.1  Whenever  rehgion  ceases  to  be  a  perilous  quest 
in  the  dark,  an  unconfirmed  venture  of  faith,  and  becomes 
a  confident  and  estabhshed  resort  to  God,  a  strong  con- 
1  MacCulloch,  E.R.E.,  iv.  p.  208. 


viiT.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  187 

viction  that  He  is  a  present  help,  one  great  aspect  of  a 
covenantal  relationship  exists — the  assurance  that  God  is 
waiting  to  be  gracious,  and  that  He  changes  not.  Israel's 
land,  kingship  and  priesthood  were  traced  to  divine 
'  covenants '  made  with  Abraham,  David,  and  Levi.^ 
'  In  the  mind  of  one  standing  far  down  in  the  history  of 
Israel  in  the  midst  of  these  estabhshed  institutions,  and 
conceiving  of  them  as  due  to  covenants  made  in  the  distant 
past  by  J[ahweh],  one  main  conception  in  covenant  must 
have  appeared  its  immutabihty '.^  Complementary  to 
this  jDonfidence  there  is  the  consciousness  of  certain  con- 
ditions on  which  alone  God  may  be  approached.  These 
were  laid  down  in  the  '  covenant '  of  Sinai, ^  the  accom- 
paniment of  the  historic  act  of  redemption  by  which 
Yahweh  took  Israel  to  be  His  people. 

In  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  rendered  '  cove- 
nant', our  natural  instinct  is  to  start  from  the  idea  of  a 
mutual  agreement  or  aUiance,  such  as  that  made  between 
Abraham  and  Abimelech  at  Beer-sheba,  or  that  between 
David  and  Jonathan.*  But  such  an  agreement,  made 
between  those  who  stand  on  a  footing  more  or  less  equal, 
cannot  adequately  represent  the  meaning  of  'covenant', 
when  this  denotes  a  relation  initiated  by  Yahweh.  When 
the  victorious  Ahab  makes  a  '  covenant '  with  the  defeated 
Ben-hadad,5  the  term  implies  the  conditions  of  peace 
granted  by  the  victor  to  the  vanquished.  Much  more 
when  God  makes  a  'covenant'  with  Israel,  its  simplest 
form   will  be  a   statement  of   God's  requirements  from 

1  Gen.  XV.  18  (J)  ;  2  Sam.  vii.  8  f.  ;  Jer.  xxxiii.  21.  For  the  covenant  with 
Abraham  in  P,  see  Gen.  xvii.  7-9. 

2  Davidson.  D.  B.,  i.  p.  511.  .  ,  ,  j        n 

3  Ex  xxiv  '7,  8  (E  .  The  'blood  of  the  covenant"  is  sprinkled  partly  on 
the  altar  and  partly  on  the  people,  and  '  the  book  of  the  covenant '  states  the 
divine  conditions.  In  the  Deuteronomic  Code,  whilst  reference  is  made  both 
to  a  covenant  with  the  fathers  (iv.  31,  vii.  12),  an.l  to  a  covenant  at  Horob 
(i.e.  Sinai)  essentially  linked  to  the  Decalogue  (iv.  13  v  2  f.,  ix.  y  t.),  a 
further  covenant  is  ma.le  \vith  Israel  '  in  the  lan.l  of  Moab,  beside  the 
covenant  which  Yahweh  made  with  them  in  Horeb  '  (Deut.  xxix.  1>. 

4  Gen.  xxi.  32 ;  1  Sam.  xvUi.  3.  ^  1  Icings  xx.  34. 


188     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Israel.  This  is  the  general  nature  of  the  covenant  at 
Sinai,  as  represented  in  JE,  the  earhest  document  describ- 
ing it.  We  find  the  term  '  covenant '  approximating  to 
this  sense  of  '  command '  in  a  contemporary  poem,  where  it 
is  used  in  paralleKsm  with  the  '  word  '  of  Yahweh.^  The 
primary  meaning  of  the  term  '  herith  '  in  Hebrew  may  have 
been  either  '  agreement '  or  '  command ',  but,  in  any  case, 
we  must  beware  of  some  of  the  suggestions  of  the  EngUsh 
word  '  covenant ',  e.g.  that  Israel  and  Yahweh  met  on  equal 
terms.  That  the  covenant,  however,  imphes  conditions  on 
both  sides  is  expUcitly  brought  out  in  the  form  it  assumes  in 
Deuteronomy  :  '  Thou  hast  acknowledged  Yahweh  this  day 
to  be  thy  God,  and  that  thou  shouldest  walk  in  His  ways. 
.  .  .  And  Yahweh  hath  acknowledged  thee  this  day  to 
be  a  pecuhar  people  unto  Himself,  as  He  hath  promised 
thee '.2  'Here  the  idea  of  a  compact  between  Yah  we 
and  Israel  involving  mutual  rights  and  obhgations  is 
fully  developed  '.^  The  Priestly  Code,  owing  to  its  more 
transcendent  idea  of  God,  regards  the  covenant  as  His 
gracious  promise  to  dwell  among  His  people,  and  to 
welcome  their  approach  to  Him.  'Hence  the  need  of 
the  tabernacle,  God's  dwelUng-place,  offerings,  and  minis- 
trants.  These  are  all  divine  institutions,  creations  and 
gifts  of  God,  the  fulfilment  in  detail  of  the  covenant  to 
be  their  God  '.* 

These  are  the  covenantal  ideas  of  Israel.  They  would 
not  cease  to  be  important  if  they  were  wholly  due  to  the 
later  rehgious  consciousness  of  the  nation,  for  they  show 
what  that  consciousness  was.  But  at  what  point  in  the 
history  of  Israel  did  the  idea  of  such  a  covenant  first  arise  ? 
In  particular,  can  that  idea  be  traced  back  to  Sinai  ? 

1  Deut.  xxxiii.  9  ;  ef.  Josh.  vii.  11  (JE) :  '  they  have  even  transgressed  my 
covenant  which  I  commanded  them  ',  and  see  Schmidt,  E.  Bi.,  col.  928  f.,  who 
connects  the  Hebrew  word  with  the  Assyrio-Babylonian  cognate  biriiu,  in  its 
primary  meaning  of  'fetter  '. 

2  Deut.  xxvi.  17,  18.  ^  Schmidt,  op.  cit,  col.  933. 
*  Davidson,  D.  B.,  i.  p.  613. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  189 

The  answer  is  fundamental  for  the  whole  subject.  As 
Davidson  has  said,  '  The  question  of  the  covenant  runs 
up  into  what  is  the  main  question  of  Old  Testament 
religious  history,  viz.  To  what  date  is  the  conception  of 
J[ahweh]  as  an  absolutely  ethical  Being  to  be  assigned  ?  '  ^ 
The  answer  to  that  question  implied  throughout  the 
present  book  is  that  whilst  we  owe  the  highest  and  fullest 
ideas  of  the  moral  personaUty  of  Yahweh  to  the  eighth- 
century  prophets,  their  work  was  not  without  preparation 
in  the  teaching  of  such  men  as  Nathan  and  Elijah  ;  in 
fact,  from  the  earhest  period  at  which  we  can  begin  to 
trace  the  history  of  Israel,  viz.  the  Exodus,  we  find  a 
relation  existing  between  Yahweh  and  Israel  which  is 
moral.  The  earUest  hterature  we  possess  concerning  the 
covenant  made  at  Sinai  is  at  least  three  centuries  later 
than  the  events  it  professedly  describes.  Nor  is  any 
expUcit  reference  to  such  a  covenantal  relation  made  by 
any  of  the  prophets  before  Jeremiah. ^  On  the  other 
hand,  this  silence  is  hardly  sufficient  disproof  that  some 
form  of  covenant  existed  in  the  earhest  days.^  The 
relation  between  Yahweh  and  Israel  from  the  days  of 
Sinai  is  at  least  virtually  'covenantal',  and  the  subse- 
quent history  becomes  more  intelhgible  if  the  national 
faith  was  then  formally  ratified  and  ceremonially  estab- 
lished.* Such  a  ceremony  as  is  described  in  the  narra- 
tive of  the  Exodus,  in  connection  with  the  signal  display 
of  Yahweh' s  power  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Egyptians, 
is  not  essentially  ahen  to  the  rehgion  of  that  time,  so  long 
as  we  do  not  read  into  the  earher  story  the  later  develop- 
ments in  the  idea  of  a  covenant.  But,  through  all  the 
changing  conceptions  of  its  nature,  the  primary  truth  for 

1  Op.  cit. ,  p.  512.  ,     .  ,  X  i-        *•  tr 

2  Cf.  8tside,Bib.  TkeologiedesA.T..^.2b^\  on  the  interpretation  of  Hosea 
vi.  7,  viii.  1,  see  Harper,  Amos  and  Hosea,  ad  loc. 

3  Cf.  Harper,  op.  cit,  pp.  Ixxvi.,  Ixxvii.  i.-L*Ti.v.*A.. 
*  Cf.  the  well-balanced  study  by  Giesebrecht,  Die  GeschicMlichkeit  de* 

Sinaibundes  (1900). 


190     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

our  present  purpose  is  unmistakable — the  assurance  that 
Yahweh  was  able  and  ready  to  bless  and  save.  His 
covenant  with  Israel  was  as  steadfast  as  what  we  call 
the  laws  of  nature  :  '  If  ye  can  break  my  covenant  of 
the  day,  and  my  covenant  of  the  night,  so  that  there 
should  not  be  day  and  night  in  their  season  ;  then  may 
also  my  covenant  be  broken  with  David  my  servant  '.^ 


2.  The  Day  of  Yahweh 

The  popular  rehgion  of  Israel  in  the  eighth  century 
assumed  that  Yahweh  was  necessarily  on  the  side  of  His 
people.  It  was  this  false  confidence  that  the  prophets 
of  the  time  specially  attacked.  Amos  did  not  complain 
that  the  worship  of  Yahweh  at  Bethel  and  Gilgal  was 
neglected,  but  that  the  zeal  with  which  the  ritual  was 
performed  at  these  places  was  a  zeal  not  according  to  know- 
ledge, a  zeal  ignorant  of  the  true  character  and  demands 
of  Yahweh.  Because  those  demands  were  unfulfilled,  the 
popular  expectation  that  Yahweh  was  certain  to  inter- 
vene on  behalf  of  Israel  was  doomed  to  grievous  disap- 
pointment, and  national  confidence  in  presence  of  foreign 
peril  was  utterly  ungrounded.  '  Woe  unto  you  that 
desire  the  day  of  Yahweh  !  wherefore  would  ye  have  the 
day  of  Yahweh  ?  it  is  darkness,  and  not  fight '.  Clearly, 
the  phrase  used  by  the  prophet,  viz.  '  the  day  of  Yahweh  ', 
was  already  famifiar  to  the  people  addressed, ^  and,  from 
the  time  of  Amos,  it  became  a  central  idea  in  the  pro- 
phetic utterances.  It  denotes  the  day  in  which  Yahweh 
will  intervene  in  the  course  of  human  history,  so  as 
supremely  to  reveal  His  power  and  His  purpose.  Then 
will  be  made  plain  to  all  the  truth  of  the  great  doctrine 

1  Jer.  xxxiii.  20,  21. 

5  Gressmann  (  Der  Ursprung  der  israelitisch-judischen  Eschatologie, 
pp.  142  f. )  plausibly  argues  that  the  idea  belongs  to  a  common  stock  of  popular 
eschatological  beliefs,  which  were  employed  by  the  prophets  as  the  most 
impressive  vehicle  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  message. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  191 

by  which  the  prophet  interprets  the  history  of  his  own 
times,  the  doctrine  of  a  divine  moral  government  of  the 
world.  Since  the  day  of  Yahweh  will  thus  be  the  vindi- 
cation of  prophecy,  it  is  almost  inevitably  conceived  by 
the  prophets,  one  after  another,  as  close  at  hand.  It  will 
usher  in  the  Messianic  age,  as  the  starthng  prelude  to  the 
estabhshment  of  the  Kingdom  of  Yahweh  on  earth.  This 
dramatic  immediacy  of  the  day  of  Yahweh  offers  a  strong 
contrast  to  many  of  the  ideals  of  our  own  age.  If  the 
vision  of  a  golden  age  of  ideal  human  life  is  cherished 
to-day,  it  is  as  the  goal  of  a  long  and  toilsome  journey, 
progress  being  made  step  by  step  through  social  evolu- 
tion, humanitarian  effort,  or  moral  reformation.  It  may 
fairly  be  claimed  that  such  a  vision  is  not  necessarily  less 
reHgious  than  that  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets  ;  the 
gradual  betterment  of  social  life  may  be  held  to  reveal 
the  presence  and  activity  of  God  not  less  surely,  if  less 
dramatically,  than  any  sudden  and  starthng  display  of 
His  power.  But  the  Old  Testament  expectation  is  essenti- 
ally of  an  intervention  from  without,  not  of  an  evolution 
from  within.  In  this  it  resembles  the  New  Testament 
expectation  of  the  Second  Advent.  The  prophetic  hope 
differs  from  the  apostohc  in  two  characteristics.  It  is 
wholly  concerned  with  life  on  this  earth,  though  the 
conditions  of  this  life  are  to  be  supernaturally  inaugurated, 
whereas  the  New  Testament  hope  of  the  future  claims 
the  heavens  as  well  as  the  earth,  and  moves  in  a  more 
cosmic  arena.  The  second  difference  is  that  the  hope  in 
the  Old  Testament  is  nationahstic,  not  individualistic. 
But,  allowing  for  the  Umitations  introduced  by  these 
differences,  we  may  say  that  the  eschatological  expecta- 
tion, at  least  among  men  of  prophetic  reUgion,  is  not 
less  intense  in  the  Old  Testament  than  the  New,  and  that 
*  the  day  of  Yahweh '  is  as  vital  to  the  earher  expectation 
as  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ  is  to  the  later. 

It  is  characteristic  of    the  earher  pre-exilic    prophets 

/ 


192     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

that  they  employ  the  idea  of  '  the  day  of  Yahweh '  to 
enforce  their  condemnation  of  Israel's  sin.  That  day  is 
a  day  of  judgment  on  Israel  itself,  as  we  may  see  from  the 
words  of  Amos  at  Bethel  (vii.  10  f.),  or  from  Isaiah's 
denunciation  of  the  pride  and  idolatry  of  '  the  house  of 
Jacob ',  which  Yahweh  will  abandon  :  '  Yahweh  of  hosts 
hath  a  day  against  all  that  is  proud  and  haughty,  and 
against  all  that  is  hfted  up  .  .  .  and  the  pride  of  man 
shall  be  bowed  down,  and  the  haughtiness  of  men  shall 
be  brought  low,  and  Yahweh  alone  shall  be  exalted  in 
that  day'  (ii.  12,  17).  The  same  thought  meets  us,  a 
century  later,  in  Zephaniah,  where  '  the  day  of  Yahweh ' 
takes  the  form  of  a  sacrificial  feast,  at  which  Judah 
herself  is  the  victim  (i.  7).  But  the  day  of  Yahweh's  anger 
is  extended  by  this  prophet  to  the  whole  earth  ;  Philistia 
and  Moab,  Egjrpt  and  Assyria,  are  also  to  suffer  from  the 
Scythian  invaders,  whom  Zephaniah  has  doubtless  in 
view  (ii.).  In  the  contemporary  prophecy  of  Nahum, 
the  wrath  of  Yahweh  is  directed,  not  against  Israel,  but 
against  Nineveh. ^  Similarly,  in  the  sixth  century,  '  the 
day  of  Yahweh '  is  proclaimed  against  Babylon  as  to  be 
reaUsed  through  the  instrumentahty  of  the  Medes.^  In  such 
prophecies  the  limitations  of  patriotism  are  more  prominent 
than  the  morahty,  transcending  them,  which  had  distin- 
guished the  greater  teachers  of  Israel.  But  a  new  tone 
enters  with  the  Exile  into  even  the  highest  prophecy. 
'  The  day  of  Yahweh ',  which  earher  prophets  had  expected, 
was  the  Exile  itself  ;  but  now  Deutero-Isaiah  awaits  a  day 
in  which  Yahweh  will  reveal  Himself  in  gracious  deliver- 
ance of  His  people  from  Babylon,  as  He  had  formerly 
revealed   Himself   in   the   deUverance   from   Egjrpt.^    A 

1  It  is  uncertain  what  power  is  denounced  in  Hab.  ii.  6  f .  ;  in  i.  5  f.  the 
Chaldeans  appear  as  an  instrument  of  divine  punishment.  The  difficulties  of 
this  book  are  indicated  in  Gray's  Critical  Introdtcction  to  the  Old  Testament^ 
pp.  221  f.,  and  in  the  article  'Habakkuk'  by  the  present  writer  in  the 
Encydopoedia  Britannica,  ed.  11, 

2  Is.  xiii.  8  l3.  lii.  3-6. 


viii.J  THE  HOPj:  of  the  NATION  1^3 

century  after  the  return,  '  the  day  of  Yahweh '  is  con- 
ceived chiefly  as  the  purging  of  Judah  from  evil,  a  day 
of  wrath  against  all  wickedness  ;  EHjah,  the  great  reformer 
of  ancient  time,  who  escaped  the  touch  of  death,  will 
renew  his  labours  on  the  earth  in  preparation  for  '  the 
great  and  terrible  day  of  Yahweh  '.^  The  Book  of  Joel, 
probably  a  little  later,  asserts  the  coming  of  that  day  in 
the  form  of  a  universal  judgment  upon  the  nations,  of 
which  the  immediate  signs  will  be  a  general  outbreak  of 
prophesying  among  Yahweh' s  people,  and  strange  wonders 
in  the  heavens  and  on  the  earth.^  Another  late  vision  of 
'  the  day  of  Yahweh '  sees  the  nations  gathered  in  attack 
on  Jerusalem,  and  Yahweh  making  a  way  of  escape  for 
His  people  through  the  cleft  Mount  of  Ohves,  whilst  a 
plague  smites  the  besiegers ;  Jerusalem  subsequently 
becomes  the  exalted  centre  of  the  world's  religion.'  It 
will  be  apparent,  even  from  the  few  illustrations  here 
selected,  how  varied  were  the  forms  in  which  '  the  day  of 
Yahweh  '  was  presented.  It  is  quite  possible  that  much 
that  is  strange  in  the  phenomena  ascribed  to  it  may  be 
traced  to  earher  popular  ideas  of  a  mythical  nature  which 
the  prophets  adapted  to  their  purpose.  But  the  per- 
manent and  cardinal  interest  of  the  conception  springs 
from  their  use  of  it  to  express  the  eternal  principles  of 
divine  righteousness. 

3.  The  Kingdom  of  God 

'  The  day  of  Yahweh  '  inaugurates  the  new  conditions 
of  Hfe  which  are  included  in  the  idea  of  '  the  kingdom  of 
God  '  (a  phrase  not  actually  found  in  the  Old  Testament). 
The  relation  of  the  two  ideas  may  be  illustrated  from  the 
prophecy  of  Obadiah,  who  first  declares  that  '  the  day  of 
Yahweh  is  near  upon  all  the  nations'  (verse  15),  and  then 

1  Mai.  iii.  2f.,  iv.  5. 

2  Joeliii.  12,  ii.28-31.  •  Zech.  iir. 

N 


194     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THL  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

goes  on  to  say,  '  the  kingship  shall  be  Yahweh's  *  (verse  21). 
The  kingdom,  or  rather  the  kingly  rule,  of  Yahweh  will  not 
be  fully  displayed  in  human  affairs  until  His  intervention 
— '  the  day  of  Yahweh ' — has  overthrown  all  opposition 
to  it.  Thus  the  idea  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  in  the  New,  is  properly  eschatological,  i.e. 
it  denotes  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished,  rather 
than  a  fact  of  present  experience.^  In  one  respect,  how- 
ever, the  New  Testament  idea  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
strikingly  differs  from  that  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 
is  its  foundation.  According  to  the  general  outlook  of 
the  New  Testament,  this  consummation  of  life  on  earth  is 
itself  the  prelude  to  life  within  a  wider  '  heavenly '  horizon, 
made  credible  by  the  doctrines  of  resurrection  and  immor- 
tality.2  But  the  new  order  of  Ufe  contemplated  in  the 
Old  Testament  is  to  be  reahsed  wholly  on  the  earth  and 
in  the  immediate  future.  It  is  itself  the  final  stage,  and 
there  is  no  sense  of  contrast  with  some  heavenly  life  which 
will  follow  it. 

The  title  '  King ',  as  appHed  to  the  divine  being,  was  in 
general  use  amongst  Semitic  peoples,  though  we  must 
not  read  into  the  title  all  that  it  suggests  to  us  in  the  way 
of  an  elaborate  and  fully  organised  state. ^  The  evidence 
of  Hebrew  proper  names  makes  it  probable  that  the 
Hebrews  at  times  employed  the  title  '  King '  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  proper  name  Yahweh,  though  this  title  was 
falhng  into  disuse  before  the  Exile.*  The  growing  differen- 
tiation of  the  religion  of  Yahweh  from  that  of  the  heathen 

1  Duhm  (on  Ps.  xxii.  29)  illustrates  this  combination  of  a  present  right  with 
its  future  realisation  from  the  Lord's  Prayer,  where  the  doxological  addition, 
'  Thine  is  the  kingdom  ',  follows  the  petition,  'Thy  kin^jdom  come  '. 

2  See  chap.  iv.  §  4  ;  it  was  along  the  present  line  of  thought  that  the  idea  of 
a  partial  resurrection  first  arose,  though  still  simply  with  a  view  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

'  Cf.  Robertson  Smith,  The  Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  63  :  'the  ideas  which 
underlay  the  conception  of  divine  sovereignty  date  from  an  age  when  the 
human  kingship  was  slill  in  a  rudimentary  state'.  He  gives  the  evidence  for 
the  use  of  this  title  amongst  the  Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  and  Ammonites. 

*  Cf.  Gray,  Hebrew  Proper  Names^  pp.  147,  253. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  195 

deities  may  have  led  to  this  disuse,  especially  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  Ammonites  called  their  god  '  King ', 
employing  the  term  as  a  proper  name.  We  first  meet 
with  direct  Hebrew  use  of  the  title  (apart  from  its  sur- 
vival in  proper  names)  in  a  poem  of  the  eighth  century,^ 
and  in  the  account  of  Isaiah's  temple- vision  (vi.  5).  It 
was  the  human  kingship  over  Israel  (begun  about  1030 
B.C.)  which  eventually  led  to  the  revival  of  the  old  Semitic 
title  of  the  deity,  though  the  conception  became  current 
only  when  the  human  kingship  had  ceased. ^  The  intro- 
duction of  that  human  kingship  was  a  perfectly  natural 
development,  forced  on  Israel  by  Philistine  pressure,  and 
the  earher  of  the  two  distinct  narratives,  now  incorporated 
in  the  First  Book  of  Samuel,  shows  that  the  appointment  of 
a  king  had  the  full  approval  of  the  prophet  Samuel.^  But 
the  later  narrative  regards  the  people's  demand  for  a 
king  as  an  imphcit  rejection  of  the  kingship  of  Yahweh 
(viii.  7).  This  is  the  point  of  view  found  in  the  eighth 
century,  and  expressed  by  the  prophet  Hosea  :  '  I  give 
thee  kings  in  my  anger,  and  I  take  them  away  in  my 
wrath  '.*  It  is  in  the  later  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
notably  in  some  of  the  Psalms,^  that  the  emphasis  falls 
particularly  on  the  kingdom  of  Yahweh,  in  the  eschato- 
logical  sense  already  indicated.  The  most  notable  example 
is  the  Book  of  Daniel,  devoted  to  the  approaching  estab- 
hshment  of  the  permanent  and  universal  kingdom  of  the 
Most  High,  to  be  administered  through  the  Jews. 

1  Deut.  xxxiii.  5  ;  the  grounds  for  dating  the  *  Blessing  of  Moses '  in  this 
period  are  indicated  in  the  Century  Bible,  ad  loc,  by  the  present  writer. 

2  ^iade,  Bib.  Theologiedes  A. T.,v-^^'  ,.       .     .        ,.       ... 

3  1  Sam.  ix.  1-x.  16,  xi.  1-11,  1^;  the  later  narrative  is  found  in  viu., 

""'^^xm^'ll?'  To  the  same  date  probably  belongs  Jud.  viii.  22,  23,  on  which 
Moore  says,  'The  condemnation  of  the  kingdom  as  in  principle  irreconc.lahle 
with  the  sovereignty  of  Yahweh,  the  divine  king,  appears  to  ^^te  ron,  he 
last  age  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  those  terrible  years  of  ^f^^P^'t.  m,  re^  o  uUm  , 
and  anarchy  which  intervened  between  the  death  of  Jeroboam  ii.  and  the  fall 

°?SrxxSu?;;ricJ;:Sl;;  Caray,  ......  p.  120.     T,eu.^eMal,uaH 

(my  king  is  Yah)  was  a  favourite  after  the  Exile  (ib.,  pp.  119,  146). 


196     EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

This  kingdom  has  usually  been  called  '  Messianic  '  by 
Christian  theologians,  but  the  name  is  misleading,  because 
the  '  Messiah ',  or  personal  representative  of  Yahweh  in 
the  government  of  His  kingdom,  is  neither  essential  to 
the  prophetic  conception  of  it,  nor  so  important  a  figure 
in  its  inauguration  as  Christian  thought  has  imagined. 
This  may  be  seen  by  taking  such  a  tjrpical  prophecy  of  the 
future  Kingdom  of  God  as  is  found  in  Zephaniah  iii.  8-13. 
There  is  here  no  reference  to  a  personal  Messiah,  but  we 
have  what  may  be  called  the  three  leading  features  of 
'  Messianic  '  prophecy  in  the  wider  sense,  viz.  (1)  the  pro- 
clamation of  a  day  of  universal  judgment  against  the 
nations,  followed  by  their  conversion ;  (2)  the  purging  of 
Israel  from  its  proud  and  unworthy  members  ;  (3)  the 
righteousness  and  well-being  of  the  humble  remnant. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  varieties  of  detail  and  some- 
times of  principle  in  the  prophetic  visions  of  this  golden 
age,  and  the  particular  emphasis  differs  in  different 
prophets,  and  at  different  periods.  But  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  any  short  passage  more  t3rpical  than  this 
of  the  general  character  of  the  nation's  hope  concerning 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  principles  involved  are  simple 
but  far-reaching.  There  is,  first,  the  conviction  that  Israel 
is  in  the  right,  as  over  against  the  world.  The  divine 
purpose  is  identified  with  one  group  of  men,  rather  than 
another,  as  it  always  will  be  where  there  is  moral 
earnestness.  The  enmity  of  the  world  against  God  is  incor- 
porated in  the  successive  enemies  of  Israel.^  At  its  lowest 
level,  this  conviction  may  be  no  more  than  a  narrow  and 
intolerant  patriotism ;  a^  its  highest,  it  is  the  condition 
of  all  progress  in  morahty  and  rehgion.  Its  basis  is,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  truth  which  Israel 
is  conscious  of  possessing,  and,  on  the  other,  the  confidence 

1  *  Almost  all  the  nations  that  ever  came  into  historical  contact  with  Israel 
are  at  some  time  or  other  so  represented '  (Schultz,  Old  Testament  Theology 
(E.T.),  ii.  p.  373). 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  197 

that  Yahweh  will  not  let  that  word  of  truth  return  to  Him 
void.  If  we  owe  to  this  conviction  the  splendid  but 
terrible  vision  of  Yahweh  as  a  blood-stained  warrior, 
returning  from  the  destruction  of  Israel's  enemies,  we 
are  not  less  indebted  to  it  for  the  anticipation  of  the  time 
when  Yahweh' s  mountain  shall  be  exalted  by  becoming 
the  centre  of  the  world's  faith  and  worship,  and  the  clash 
of  weapons  shall  be  heard  no  more.^  Secondly,  there  is 
the  consciousness  that  Israel,  though  as  compared  with 
other  nations  it  may  be  in  the  right,  is  not  justified  before 
Yahweh.  Through  the  nation,  as  the  prophets  know  it. 
He  cannot  accomplish  His  purpose  ;  that  will  be  accom- 
plished through  the  'righteous  remnant',  the  pure  gold 
of  those  loyal  to  Him,  when  the  dross  consisting  of  un- 
worthy IsraeHtes  has  been  removed.  This  is  an  important 
feature,  for  example,  in  the  teaching  of  Isaiah  : 

'  I  will  turn  my  hand  against  thee, 

And  I  will  smelt  out  thy  dross  in  the  furnace, 

And  remove  all  thine  alloy. 
And  I  will  restore  thy  judges  as  at  the  first, 

And  thy  counsellors  as  at  the  beginning ; 
Afterwards  thou  shalt  be  called  City  of  Justice, 

Faithful  City '.2 

This  consciousness  of  Israel's  unworthiness,  combined 
with  the  conviction  of  the  continuity  of  its  mission,^  may 
be  compared  with  the  similar  combination  of  both  penitence 
and  assurance  in  the  individual  heart  which  characterises 
some  notable  forms  of  the  Christian  consciousness.  Thirdly, 
in  continuation  of  this  doctrine  of  the  '  righteous  remnant ', 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  characterised  by  moral  and 
physical  perfection,  relatively,  at  least,  to  the  present 
order.     Many  famihar  passages  will  recur  to  the  reader's 

1  Is.  Ixui.  1-6;  ii.  2-4  =  Micahiv.  1-3. 

a  i.  25,  26.  For  this  translation  (inchiding  the  slight  emendation  in  tn« 
furnace')  see  Gray,  Com?7i.,a(^;oc.  „,•■•■,«    i-     t     ;«   o  r 

»  Cf.  Is.  vi.  13,  'a  stock  remaineth' ;  also  Mai.  in.  lo,  1/  ,  is.  iv.  ^-o. 


198     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

mind  in  illustration  of  this  faith,  such  as  the  promises 
that  Israel  shall  be  wholly  righteous,  that  the  earth  shall 
be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  Yahweh,  as  the  waters  cover 
the  sea,  and  that  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the  hght 
of  the  sun,  the  hght  of  the  sun  sevenfold. ^  In  one  place  it 
is  said  that  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  in  another  that 
patriarchal  longevity  shall  return.^  The  description  of  the 
streets  of  this  earthly  '  Jerusalem  the  golden ',  where  the 
aged  sit  in  peace  and  the  children  play  jojrfully,^  is  one  of 
the  most  touching  scenes  in  this  kaleidoscopic  panorama 
of  the  future. 

The  ideal  of  this  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  great  one,  and 
from  Israel  it  has  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  world. 
When  the  early  Christian  hope  of  its  speedy  reahsation 
faded  away,  there  gradually  rose  that  vision  of  '  the  city 
of  God '  to  which  Augustine  has  given  classic  expression, 
the  eternal  Kingdom  represented  by  the  Church.  When 
the  one  Catholic  Church  lost  her  unique  prerogative  before 
the  tribunal  of  advancing  civiUsation,  a  new  individuahsm 
arose,  which  is  even  yet  slowly  feehng  its  way  to  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  But  in  the  social  and  humani- 
tarian emphasis  of  the  present  day  there  is  an  unmis- 
takable tendency  to  disregard  that  which  was  the  cardinal 
feature  in  the  hope  of  Israel,  the  saving  fellowship  of 
Yahweh.  The  '  brotherhood  of  man '  is  hardly  an  Old 
Testament  idea  ;  but  the  contribution  made  to  that  idea 
(within  the  limits  of  nationalism)  is  certainly  dependent 
on  the  Fatherhood  of  God  for  its  deepest  motive  and 
for  its  full  reahsation. 

4-.  The  Messiah 

The  figure  of  the  Messiah,  the  kingly  ruler  who  repre- 
sents  Yahweh,    constitutes    one    element   in   the   future 

1  Is.  Ix.  21,  xi.  9,  XXX.  26 ;  cf.  Ixvi.  22,  23,  and  p.  72,  note  1. 

2  Is.  XXV.  8,  Ixv.  20.  3  Zeeh.  viii.  4,  5. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  199 

Kingdom  of  God,  rather  than  the  agent  by  whom  it  is  to 
be  introduced,  or  the  centre  aromid  which  it  will  revolve. 
That  kingdom  centres  in  Yahweh  Himself,  and  will  be 
inaugurated  by  His  intervention  in  human  affairs.  The 
Messiah  does  not  appear  in  all  the  pictures  of  the  ideal 
future  ;  where  He  does,  it  is  as  Yahweh's  administrator, 
vested  with  powers  from  Him,  and  wholly  subordinate 
to  Him.  Consequently,  it  may  be  said  that  the  figure 
of  the  Messiah  is  not  of  primary  significance  in  the  Old 
Testament,  however  important  it  subsequently  became. 

The  term  '  Messiah '  reproduces  a  Hebrew  word  meaning 
'  anointed  ',  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  corresponding 
Greek  title  'Christos'.  The  original  idea  in  the  practice 
of  anointing  was  doubtless  the  actual  communication 
of  '  supernatural '  quahties  through  contact  with  the 
unguent  used.^  In  Old  Testament  usage  kings,  priests, 
and  prophets  were  actually  anointed  with  oil,  the  under- 
lying idea  being  that  they  were  thus  quahfied  for  their 
office.^  Thus  the  term  '  anointed  '  came  to  denote  meta- 
phorically those  who  were  set  apart  for  some  particular 
work,  such  as  Cyrus,  the  dehverer  of  Israel,  the  Jewish 
patriarchs,  and  Israel  as  a  nation.^  The  Old  Testament 
does  not,  indeed,  employ  the  technical  term,  '  the  Messiah  ', 
which  has  become  so  familiar  to  us,  to  denote  the  princely 
ruler  of  the  future  Kingdom  of  God.*  But  the  figure  of  the 
Messiah  is  clearly  a  development  from  the  idea  of  the 
Hebrew  king  as  '  Yahweh's  anointed ',  and  more  particu- 
larly from  the  ideahsed  kingship  of  David,  to  whom  the 
promise  of  perpetuity  was  thought  to  have  been  given  : 
'  I  will  set  up  thy  seed  after  thee  .  .  .  and  I  will  establish 
the  throne  of  his  kingdom  for  ever  .  .  .  and  thine  house 

1  Animal  fat  is  widely  regarded  by  primitive  thought  as  having  a  life 
within  itself  which  is  communicated  with  the  substance;  of.  Crawley,  JH.R.E., 
i.  p.  550. 

2  J^.g.,  Saul  (1  Sam.  x.  1) ;  Aaron  (Ex.  xxix.  7) ;  Elisha  (1  Kings  xii.  16). 

3  Is.  xlv.  1 ;  Ps.  cv.  15  ;  Hab.  iii.  13.  a 
*  Dan,  ix.  25  should  be  referred  to  Cyrus  or  the  high  priest  Joshua.     I 


200     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

and  thy  kingdom  shall  be  made  sure  for  ever  before  thee ; 
thy  throne  shall  be  estabUshed  for  ever'.^  This  points 
to  a  succession  of  '  kings  and  princes  sitting  upon  the 
throne  of  David',  so  that  'David  shall  never  want  a  man 
to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  the  house  of  Israel  '.^  The 
'righteous  branch',  or  rather  'shoot',  to  be  raised  unto 
David  is  conceived  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  line  of 
Davidic  kings  :  '  He  shall  reign  as  king  and  deal  wisely,  and 
shall  execute  judgment  and  justice  in  the  land  '.^  It  will 
be  seen  how  naturally  and  imperceptibly  this  hope  of 
a  Davidic  restoration  becomes  Messianic  in  the  stricter 
sense  of  the  term  ;  the  future  Davidic  ruler  is  simply 
ideahsed,  and  becomes  the  prince  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
We  may  learn  how  concrete  and  definite,  how  close  to 
current  Hfe,  these  hopes  were,  by  the  fact  that  Zerubbabel, 
the  governor  of  Judah  in  520  B.C.,  is  acclaimed  by  both 
Haggai  and  Zechariah  as  the  Messianic  prince.* 

The  relation  to  an  actual  historical  environment  is  much 
less  apparent  when  we  turn  to  the  three  chief  passages 
in  the  prophets  which  describe  the  personahty  of  the 
Messianic  prince.*  In  the  first  of  these  (Is.  ix.  6  f.)  the 
Davidic  ruler  of  the  righteous  kingdom  which  Yahweh 
will  estabhsh  is  called  '  Wonderful  Counsellor,  Mighty 
God,  A  Father  for  ever,  Prince  of  Peace '.    We  must  not 

1  2  Sam.  vii,  12  f. ;  not  earlier  than  seventh  century.     Cf.  Ps.  Ixxxix.  19  f. 

2  Jer.  xvii.  25,  xxxiii.  17  ;  cf.  Amos  ix.  11  ;  Hos.  iii.  5 ;  Ez.  xlv.  8. 

3  Jer.  xxiii.  5,  6  ;  cf.  xxxiii.  14  f, 

4  Haggai  ii.  23  ;  Zech.  iii.  8,  vi.  12.  In  the  last  two  passages  the  Jeremianic 
term  'shoot'  (E.V.  'branch')  is  referred  by  the  present  text  to  Joshua,  the 
high  priest,  but  the  last  clause  of  vi.  13  shows  that  there  has  been  an  editorial 
omission  of  another  name,  and  iv.  9  makes  it  sufficiently  plain  that  this  was 
Zerubbabel. 

5  Is.  ix.  6  f.,  xi.  1-5  ;  Zech.  ix.  9.  The  last  of  these  belongs  to  the  Greek 
period ;  the  first  and  second,  according  to  the  general  trend  of  critical  opinion, 
are  thought  to  belong  to  the  Exile,  or  shortly  after  it,  but  the  question  of  their 
date  is  still  open  to  discussion.  The  famous  passage  concerning  '  Immanuel* 
(Is.  vii.  14)  'speaks  clearly  of  a  Deliverance,  but  is  silent  as  to  a  Deliverer' 
(Gray,  Comm.,  p.  136)  ;  as  a  token  of  that  deliverance,  mothers  will  soon  be 
naming  their  children,  *  God  with  us '.  But  the  other  interpretation  is  as  old 
as  Micah  v.  3,  which  seems  to  be  a  remark  subsequently  added  to  the  Davidic 
hope  of  the  preceding  verse. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  201 

read  too  much  into  these  enigmatic  titles,  but  it  is  clear 
that  they  give  to  this  ruler  a  unique  position,  through  his 
judicial  decisions,  his  superhuman  powers,  his  protec- 
tion of  his  people,  and  the  unbroken  stability  and  peace 
of  his  rule. -^  In  the  second  passage  (Is.  xi.  1-5),  the  char- 
acter of  the  Davidic  king,  the  '  shoot  from  the  stump  of 
Jesse',  is  described  with  greater  plainness  and  detail. 
The  Spirit  of  Yahweh  will  endow  him  with  the  full  equip- 
ment of  a  righteous  and  efficient  judge,  viz.  penetrating 
insight,  upright  standards,  and  the  power  to  execute  the 
sentence  passe(^  In  both  these  passages  it  will  be  noticed 
that  the  emphasis  falls  upon  the  government  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  after  it  has  been  entrusted  to  the  prince, 
rather  than  upon  any  acts  of  his  o\\ti  which  acquire  the 
position.  Such  government  will  be  necessary,  because  the 
perfection  of  the  kingdom  is  not  conceived  as  absolute. 
'  The  Messianic  age  is  not  to  be  an  age  free  from  sin  (cp. 
Ixv.  20,  xxxii.  5)  ;  the  conception  is  thus  entirely  different 
from  the  later  conception  of  heaven.  But  the  wicked  will 
not  as  now  sin  on  with  impunity  '.^  The  third  passage 
(Zech.  ix.  9)  is  that  which  bids  Jerusalem  rejoice  at  the 
coming  of  its  king,  '  righteous  and  granted  victory,  lowly, 
and  riding  upon  an  ass,  even  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass '. 
Here,  also,  '  the  Messiah  is  described  not  as  bringing 
victory  or  salvation,  but  as  the  passive  recipient  of  it'.^ 
He  rides  no  war-horse,  but  comes  in  peace,  and  '  shares 
the  character  of  the  saved  people '.^  The  same  relation 
of  the  king  to  the  kingdom  underhes  the  Messianic  refer- 
ences in  the  Psalms.  Yahweh  sets  His  king  upon  His 
holy  hill  of  Zion,  and  says,  '  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand, 
until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool  '.*  Exalted  to 
this  high  place,  and  vested  with  unique  powers  that  he 
may  worthily  discharge  his  office,  the  Messianic  king  of 

1  Gray  {Isaiah,  i.  p.  218),  whose  exposition  of  these  two  passages  has  been 

followed.  .    ^        .,  Ts      ry       ■  109 

2  Driver,  Century  Bible,  ad  loc.  3  Davidson,  D.  B.,  iv.  p.  123. 
4  Pss.  ii.  6,  ex.  1. 


202     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

the  Old  Testament  still  remains  a  man  supreme  among 
men,  rather  than  the  equal,  in  any  sense,  of  God.  His 
figure  results  from  the  rehgious  view  of  history  in  general, 
and  of  the  kingship  in  particular,  not  from  a  philosophic 
theory  such  as  that  which  gave  rise  to  the  Greek  doctrine 
of  the  Logos.  In  fact,  the  nearest  parallel  in  the  Christian 
centuries  to  the  Old  Testament  doctrine  of  the  Messiah 
would  be  found  in  those  '  heresies  '  which  thought  of  Jesus 
as  raised  to  His  divine  authority  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
which  came  upon  Him  at  baptism. 

5.  The  Servant  of  Yahweh 

The  national  hope  finds  its  most  elaborate  and  remark- 
able expression  in  part  of  our  present  '  Book  of  Isaiah^, 
viz.  chaps,  xl.-lv.,  written  by  an  unknown  prophet  of  the 
Exile  somewhere  about  540  B.C.  This  illustrates,  with 
exceptional  vividness  of  style  and  thought,  that  inter- 
pretative ideahsm  of  the  prophets  which  transformed  the 
history  of  Israel.  Not  only  is  it  the  fullest  statement  of 
the  national  hope  which  the  Old  Testament  contains,  but 
it  can  be  assigned,  on  the  clearest  evidence,  to  a  definite 
historical  setting.  The  immediate  stimulus  to  this  pro- 
phecy was  the  victorious  career  of  Cyrus,  the  vassal  of 
Media,  a  career  which  began  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  B.C.  He  eventually  became  the  ruler  of  Western 
Asia.  Babylon  fell  before  him  in  539  B.C.,  and  a  con- 
temporary inscription  shows  that  he  reversed  its  poficy, 
and  restored  various  deported  peoples  to  their  own 
countries.  At  some  time  previous  to  the  fall  of  Babylon, 
the  unknown  prophet  of  the  Exile  acclaims  Cyrus  as  the 
divinely  appointed  instrument  for  the  restoration  of 
Israel.  Nothing  will  hinder  this,  for  Yahweh  is  behind 
him,  and  Yahweh  is  the  one  and  only  God,  the  creator 
and  ruler  of  the  whole  world  ;  the  heathen  gods  are  naught 
but  senseless  idols.     In  the  restoration  of  His  people  Israel, 


vni.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  203 

Yahweh  returns  to  reign  in  Zion.  Not  only  for  Israel's 
sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  His  own  name,  Yahweh  works 
this  dehverance,  and  through  it  He  will  be  made  known 
to  all  the  earth.  '  I  am  God,  and  there  is  none  else  .  .  . 
unto  me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every  tongue  shall  swear  '.* 
With  this  exalted  faith,  the  prophet  begins  and  ends  on 
the  keynote  of  comfort  for  Israel,^  in  marked  contrast  to 
the  demand  for  penitence  which  characterises  pre-exiUc 
prophecy. 

In  the  course  of  these  chapters  the  nation  is  frequently 
described  or  addressed  as  'the  Servant  of  Yahweh',  a 
title  already  borne  by  distinguished  individual  Israelites 
and  by  the  nation  as  a  whole.^  It  is  beyond  dispute  that 
the  title,  in  some  instances,  here  refers  to  the  nation,  e.g. 
in  the  words  '  thou,  Israel  my  servant,  Jacob  whom  I  have 
chosen,  the  seed  of  Abraham  my  friend  '.*  But  there  has 
been  much  discussion  as  to  the  reference  of  the  title  in  the 
remarkable  series  of  '  Songs  of  the  Servant  of  Yahweh  '.* 
The  personality  of  the  Servant  appears  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  nation  as  a  whole,*  and  is  described  with  such 
individuality  of  detail,  that  many  have  seen  a  reference 
to  some  distinguished  IsraeHte,  either  of  the  past  {e.g. 
Jeremiah)  or  of  the  unknown  future.^  Both  these  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  a  collective  interpretation  seem  to 
be  met  when  due  weight  is  given  to  that  conception  of 
'  corporate  personahty '  which  has  already  been  noticed,® 
a  conception  which  goes  so  far  beyond  anything  familiar 
to  us  in  the  way  of  personification.  The  national  '  thou  ' 
can  include  both  the  evil  and  the  good,®  and  the  prophet 

1  Is.  xlv.  22,  23.  2  xl.  1  f.,  Iv.  12,  13. 

*  E.g.y  Gen.  xxvi.  24  (Abraham) ;  Jer.  xxx.  10;  Ez.  xxviii.  25. 

*  Is.  xli.  8.  5  xlii.  1-4,  xlix.  1-6,  1.  4-9,  lii.  13-liii.  12. 
«  xlix.  6,  liii.  8.           ' 

■^  In  connection  with  this  interpretation,  the  Songs  are  often  ascri^Mi  to  a 
different  source  from  that  of  the  rest  of  the  propliecy.  On  this  iudivulualislic 
interpretation  we,  might  compare  the  obscuieitassage,  Zcch.  xii.  10,  where  an 
unknown  martyr  seems  to  be  meant. 

8  See  chap,  iv,  §  3. 

*  For  an  instructive  example,  see  Zeph.  iii.  11-13, 


204     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

can  turn  his  gaze  now  on  one  and  now  on  the  other  part 
of  the  nation,  in  rapid  transition,  still  employing  the  same 
title.  Thus  the  prophet  (outside  the  Songs)  asks,  '  Who 
is  bUnd,  but  my  Servant  ?  or  deaf,  as  my  messenger  that 
I  send  ? '  whilst  in  the  Songs  themselves  the  Servant  is 
described  as  righteous.^  In  both  cases  there  is  reference 
to  the  actual  nation,  in  the  light  of  its  past  history  ;  in 
the  former,  to  Israel's  unwilHngness  to  reaUse  its  mission, 
as  taught  by  Yahweh's  prophets ;  in  the  latter,  to  the 
reahsation  of  that  mission,  at  least  through  the  truer  part 
of  the  nation.  Whatever  may  be  Israel's  shortcomings 
in  relation  to  Yahweh,  still,  in  contrast  with  the  world, 
Israel  is  Yahweh' s  righteous  servant,  as  the  kings  of  the 
nations  themselves  acknowledge.^ 

We  have  already  noticed,  in  connection  with  the  problem 
of  suffering,  the  way  in  which  this  mission  of  Israel  to  the 
world  is  conceived.  For  if  Israel  has  received  at  Yahweh's 
hand  double  for  all  her  sins,  then  the  surplus  of  undeserved 
suffering  belongs  to  the  mystery  of  His  deahng  with  His 
people.  The  veil  of  that  mystery  is  partly  Ufted  to  reveal 
His  purpose,  which  is  to  bring  the  world  to  His  feet.  That 
purpose  is  accompHshed  through  Israel's  history,  not  only 
because  the  nation  is  made  a  missionary  prophet  to  the 
Gentiles,  but  because  its  sufferings  form  a  sacrificial  offer- 
ing ^  for  the  sins  of  the  world— doubtless  including  the 
unworthy  within  Israel.  The  sight  of  these  sufferings 
moves  the  nations  to  penitence,  when  they  are  interpreted 
in  the  Hght  of  Yahweh's  redemptive  purpose,  and  no 
longer  as  the  penalty  of  Israel's  sin.  The  whole  description 
implies  that  the  suffering  has  been  nobly  endured,  and 
that  there  belongs  to  it  a  positive  worth  and  intrinsic 

xlii.  19,  liii.  11.  ,    ,  .  o  •      -iv      4.     <.     n- 

2  liii.  The  peculiar  reference  to  '  my  people  m  verse  8  is  either  textualiy 
corrupt,  or  a  relapse  into  the  writer's  own  standpoint  within  the  nation. 

3  liii.  10  (dshdm) ;  of.  verse  12  :  'he  bare  the  sin  of  many,  and  made  inter- 
cession for  the  transgressors '.  The  sacrificial  idea  cannot  be  set  aside  simply 
because  the  text  of  verses  9-11  is  corrupt,  as  it  certainly  is. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  205 

value,  in  virtue  of  which  the  nations  find  acceptance  and 
forgiveness.^ 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  have  here  a  hope  of  the  nation 
very  different  in  character  from  the  expectations  hitherto 
considered.  It  is  true,  in  this  case  as  before,  that  Israel 
is  triumphantly  vindicated  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and 
that  Jerusalem  still  remains  the  spiritual  metropolis. 
But  the  path  to  this  vindication  is  through  defeat,  not 
victory  ;  Israel,  Uke  Christ,  rules  the  world  from  the  Cross. 
The  very  nature  of  this  '  hope '  explains  why  it  has  left 
so  little  trace  on  the  subsequent  religion  of  Israel.^  The 
Old  Testament  has  no  doctrine  of  a  suffering  Messiah  ; 
the  conception  of  the  suffering  Servant  of  Yahweh  belongs 
to  the  '  Messianic  '  hope  only  in  the  widest  sense  of  the 
word.  The  nearest  parallel  to  these  Songs  of  the  Servant 
is  suppUed  by  the  Book  of  Job,  where  Job  also  reaches 
a  triumphant  vindication  after  sufferings  ^  that  minister 
to  Yahweh's  mysterious  purpose,  receiving  double  for 
all  his  losses  (cf.  Is.  Ixi.  7),  and  making  intercession  for 
those  who  have  misjudged  him.  In  the  22nd  Psalm,  also, 
the  sorrows  of  Israel  are  followed  by  the  divine  deUverance 
and  the  conversion  of  the  world.  But,  for  the  most  part, 
it  was  the  brighter  aspect  of  the  prophecies  of  Deutero- 
Isaiah  that  left  its  mark  on  the  subsequent  religion  and 
literature  of  Israel.  The  spiritual  demand  made  by  the 
Songs  of  the  Servant  on  those  who  would  share  in  their 
ideals  was  too  great  for  the  rank  and  file,  especially  in 
the  atmosphere  of  narrowing  nationahsm  which  followed 
the  Exile.  The  demand  is  still  too  great  for  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  newer  Israel  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  created. 

1  This  'objective'  value  of  the  sacrifice  must  not  hastily  be  identified  with 
much  later  theories  of  penal  satisfaction  ;  it  is  rather  a  parallel  to  Jol.  s  dis- 
interested piety.  Israel  has  enabled  the  nations  to  make  a  costly  gift  to 
Yahweh.     Cf.  chaps,  vi.  §  2,  vii.  §  3.        ,  ^   ^  .       .    ,,        .  .,     .  . .„..  „ 

»  'Jonah  is  a  protest  of  the  more  Liberal  Judaism  in  the  spintnal  succession 
of  the  Servant  of  Yahweh  '  (Bennett,  Post-ExUic  Pruphets.  p   12/ ) 

3  It  is  remarkable,  also,  tliat  the  Servant  is  described  as  a  leper,  this  being 
the  probable  meaning  of  *  stricken '  in  liii.  4. 


206     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Yet  Israel's  sufferings,  so  interpreted,  have  entered  into 
His  Gospel,  shaped  His  life  and  issued  in  His  Cross.  To 
those  safferings,  coupled  with  this  interpretation  of  them, 
are  due  the  most  characteristic  ideas  of  the  Christian 
faith  and  morality. 


6.  Nationalism  and  Universalism 

We  have  already  seen  ^  that  the  Exile  gave  birth  to  two 
distinct  ideals  of  the  future  of  Israel — to  the  priestly  ideal 
of  Ezekiel,  with  a  nationahsm  centred  in  the  restored 
temple  and  its  ritual,  sharply  separated  from  the  outside 
world,  and  to  the  prophetic  ideal  of  Deutero-Isaiah, 
which  anticipated  the  conversion  of  all  other  nations  to 
the  reHgion  of  Israel,  through  the  missionary  work  of  the 
Servant  of  Yahweh.  These  two  contrasted  ideals,  which 
we  may  call  nationaUsm  and  universahsm,  run  through 
the  whole  of  post-exilic  Judaism,  but  from  the  time  of 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  onwards  it  is  the  former  which  gains 
in  strength,  and  eventually  issues  in  the  post-BibHcal 
Judaism,  '  a  nation,  which  could  not  live,  and  could  not 
die,  a  Church  which  did  not  free  itself  from  the  national 
life,  and  therefore  remained  a  sect  \^  On  the  other  hand, 
the  universahstic  tendencies  which  sprang  from  the  mono- 
theism and  moraUty  of  Old  Testament  reUgion  were 
maintained  through  the  propaganda  of  the  Jewish  Dis- 
persion, and  finally  found  their  triumphant  outlet  in 
Christianity. 

The  pecuhar  intensity  of  Jewish  nationalism  springs 
ultimately  from  the  consciousness  of  unique  rehgious 
possessions,  a  consciousness  fully  justified  by  subsequent 

1  Chap.  i.  p.  14;  cf.  Stade,  Bib.  Theologie  des  A.T.,  p.  309:  *  WhilBt 
according  to  Ezekiel's  idea  of  God  there  must  be  the  most  rigorous  separation 
of  Israel  from  the  whole  world,  according  to  the  idea  of  Deutero-Isaiah 
heathenism  will  be  overcome  '. 

2  BouBset,  Die  Religion  des  Judentwns,^  p.  110. 


viii.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  207 

history,  as  well  as  by  comparison  with  other  religions. 
This  consciousness  goes  back,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the 
dehverance  from  Egypt.  It  found  political  expression 
under  David  and  Solomon,  and  in  the  subsequent  divided 
kingdoms.  Already,  in  the  seventh  century,  it  demanded 
rehgious  separation  from  other  nations  :  '  Thou  art  a  holy 
people  unto  Yahweh  thy  God:  Yahweh  thy  God  hath  chosen 
thee  to  be  a  pecuUar  people  unto  Himself,  out  of  all  peoples 
that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  '.^  This  demand  for  a 
'holy',  i.e.  a  'separated'  people,  corresponding  to  the  'holy' 
God,  finds  fullest  expression  in  the  later  Priestly  Code,^ 
particularly  in  the  '  Law  of  Hohness '  (Lev.  xvii.-xxvi.), 
which  is  inspired  by  the  principles  of  Ezekiel.  These 
were  the  principles  which  the  combined  work  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  enforced  in  the  restored  Jewish  community. 
Because  they  could  no  longer  find  expression  in  political 
independence,  their  concentrated  strength  was  poured 
into  rehgious  moulds.  Already,  in  the  Exile,  the  primi- 
tive practice  of  circumcision  and  the  ancient  Sabbath 
festival  had  acquired  a  new  meaning  and  a  greatly  in- 
creased importance  for  Judaism.  '  As  substitutes  for  the 
sacrificial  worship,  no  longer  possible,  the  sabbath  and 
circumcision  became  the  cardinal  commands  of  Judaism, 
and  the  chief  symbols  of  the  rehgion  of  Yahwe  and  of 
membership  of  the  rehgious  commonwealth '.^  Ezekiel, 
in  his  description  of  Sheol,  distinguishes  the  uncircumcisod 
from  the  circumcised.*  One  of  the  things  that  shocked 
Nehemiah's  stricter  religious  conscience  was  the  sight  of 
Jewish  labour  on  the  Sabbath.^  The  most  important 
step  taken  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  however,  was  the  aboh- 
tion  and  prohibition  of  marriage  outside  Judaism.  Ezra 
was  moved  to  the  deepest  sorrow  and  indignation  when 
he  found  that  such  relationships  existed,  even  in  the  case 

1  Deut.  vii.  6  ;  note  the  whole  chapter.  *  ^•f7..  ^fj- ^'-  *** 

8  Benzinger,  in  E.  Bi.,  col.  832.  *  i^*"-  1^-3^' 

6  Neh.  xiii.  15  f.  ;  cf.  x.  31. 


208     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

of  priests ;  he  called  on  the  Jews  to  separate  themselves 
*  from  the  peoples  of  the  land,  and  from  the  strange 
women '.1  He  could  appeal  to  the  Deuteronomic  prohibi- 
tion of  marriage  with  the  Canaanites.  But  his  justifica- 
tion, from  the  nationaUstic  standpoint,  was  deeper  than 
any  ancient  law.  '  The  permanence  of  Judaism  depended 
on  the  reUgious  separateness  of  the  Jews.  ...  He  fenced 
of?  the  people  against  the  subtler  temptations  to  idolatry 
and  averted  the  imminent  danger  of  his  time,  the  fusion 
of  the  Jews  at  Jerusalem  with  the  semi-heathen  "  peoples 
of  the  land "  '.^  The  result  of  the  assertion  of  this 
rigorous  principle  of  separation  is  seen  in  the  rise  of  the 
rival  community  of  'Samaritans',  the  descendants  of 
those  northern  Israelites  who  had  not  been  deported, 
together  with  the  colonists  from  abroad  settled  in  these 
districts  by  Assyrian  kings.'  Towards  this  community 
the  attitude  of  Nehemiah  is  unmistakable :  '  Ye  have  no 
portion,  nor  right,  nor  memorial,  in  Jerusalem  '.* 

It  is  significant,  both  for  the  strength  and  for  the  char- 
acter of  Jewish  nationahsm,  that  the  famous  Maccabaean 
Revolt,  more  than  two  and  a  half  centuries  after  the  time 
of  Nehemiah,  was  provoked  by  the  Syrian  attempt  to 
Hellenise  the  Jewish  rehgion,  not  by  the  Jewish  desire  to 
gain  poHtical  liberty.  It  was  in  168  B.C.  that  the  general 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  replaced  the  altar  of  Yahweh 
by  an  altar  of  Zeus,  and  forced  the  Jews  throughout  the 
land  to  worship  idols.  In  the  following  year  the  revolt 
began  through  the  priest  Mattathias  and  his  family.  The 
Old  Testament  itself  provides  a  ghmpse  of  the  opening 
years  of  this  revolt  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.    Its  latter  half, 

1  Ezra  X.  11 ;  cf.  Neh.  xiii.  23  f. ;  Mai.  ii.  11. 

2  Ryle,  in  Cambridge  Bible,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  pp.  143,  144. 

3  Jer.  xli.  5  ;  Ezra  iv.  2,  etc.  The  Elephantine  Jewish  community  appealed 
for  help  to  the  Samaritans  in  408  B.C.  The  foundation  of  the  Samaritan 
temple  is  usually  connected  with  Neh.  xiii.  28,  but  cf.  Bertholet,  Bib. 
Theologie  des  ^.T.,  p.  28. 

*  Neh.  ii.  20.  On  the  real  advantage  to  Judaism  of  this  rival  communitr 
as  a  safety-valve,  cf.  Bertholet,  op.  cit,  p.  29. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  209 

though  thrown  into  the  form  of  a  prophecy  ascribed  to 
the  sixth  century,  is  really  an  allegorical  description  of 
the  external  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people  in  the  hands 
of  Babylonians,  Medes,  Persians,  and  Greeks.^  Prophecy 
proper  enters  with  the  vision  of  '  one  like  unto  a  son  of 
man ',  i.e.  the  Jewish  nation,  whose  kingdom  follows  that 
of  the  '  beasts ',  and  shall  know  no  end.  The  interest  of 
the  writer  naturally  Ues  in  the  present  conduct  of  Antiochus, 
and  his  desecration  of  the  temple  (viii.  11).  The  '  mighty 
king  '  (xi.  3)  is  Alexander  the  Great ;  the  kingdoms  of  the 
north  and  the  south  (xi.  5  f.)  are  those  of  the  Syrian  and 
Egyptian  rulers  in  whose  hands  the  Jews  were,  throughout 
the  Greek  period,  up  to  the  time  of  the  Maccabaean  Revolt. 
The  '  contemptible  person  '  (xi.  21)  is  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
himself.  The  closing  chapter  moves  in  the  realm  of  the 
future  kingdom  of  God,  which  follows  the  fall  of  Antiochus. 
The  Book  of  Daniel  as  a  whole,  it  will  be  seen,  really 
belongs  to  the  apocalyptic  Uterature  which  flourished  so 
abundantly  in  the  period  between  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments. Its  presence  in  the  Canon  forms  a  convenient 
landmark  in  the  development  of  Jewish  nationalism, ^ 
and  illustrates  the  continuity  of  that  development  with 
both  the  past  and  the  future.  The  nationalism  which 
claimed  poHtical  as  well  as  rehgious  independence  in 
the  Maccabaean  period  was  again  to  enter  the  pohtical 
and  mihtary  arena  in  the  events  which  led  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  in  a.d.  70,  and  to  the  Barcochba  Revolt 
of  A.D.  132-135.  One  of  the  keenest  observers  of  men  and 
manners,  writing  at  the  close  of  the  first  Christian  century, 
was  struck  by  the  contrast  between  the  inner  and  outer 
attitude  of  the  Jew  :  '  Among  themselves  they  are  inflexibly 
honest,  and  ever  ready  to  show  compassion,  though  they 

1  See  the  vision  of  the  four  beasts  in  chap.  vii.  The  empire  of  the  Medes  is 
an  unhistorical  insertion.  .  . 

2  The  (unhistorical)  story  of  '  Esther  '  shows  what  this  nationalistic  spirit 
could  become  when  divorced  from  that  finer  religious  consciousness  which 
usually  redeemed  it. 

O 


210     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

regard  the  rest  of  mankind  with  all  the  hatred  of  enemies  '.* 
That  apparent  inconsistency  sprang  from  Jewish  nation- 
alism, which  was  so  mighty  a  passion  for  good  and  for 
evil,  because  it  drank  so  deep  at  the  fountain  of  national 
rehgion. 

Yet  it  would  be  quite  unfair  to  the  religious  ideas  of  the 
Old  Testament  if  we  judged  them  solely  by  such  a  narrow 
and  embittered  nationalism.  The  broader  outlook,  even 
of  the  post-exiUc  period,  is  manifest  in  not  a  few  passages. 
We  have  only  to  think  of  the  two  companion  books, 
'  Jonah  '  and  '  Ruth  ' — both  expressing,  though  in  such 
different  ways,  a  noble  universalism,  a  fine  disregard 
of  the  lower  nationalism—  -to  realise  the  heights  possible 
within  that  nation  which  could  also  descend  to  the  level 
of  'Esther'.  The  truth  which  'Jonah'  and  'Ruth' 
utter  in  story — that  Yahweh  can  look  beyond  all  the 
barriers  drawn  around  Israel — finds  expression  through 
more  than  one  unknown  prophet.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  passages  is  that  which  couples  Israel  with 
Egjrpt  and  Ass3rria,  as  sharing  aUke  the  blessing  of  Yahweh. ^ 
In  another,  almost  startling  by  its  cathoHcity,  Yahweh 
is  pictured  as  removing  the  veil  of  mourning,  and  wiping 
the  tears  from  the  eyes,  not  of  the  Jews  alone,  but  of  all 
humanity.^  Yet  another  seems  to  have  taught  that 
the  great  world's  altar-stairs  slope,  even  through  the 
darkness  of  heathenism,  up  to  the  one  true  God.*  The 
spirit  that  underhes  such  utterances  corresponds  to  the 
practical  relation  of  the  Jewish  Dispersion  to  the  outside 
world.  The  '  protected  stranger  '  (ger)  of  the  older  nation- 
alism was  succeeded  by  the  '  proselyte '  of  the  newer.* 

1  Tacitus,  Histories,  v.  5  (E.T.  by  Church  and  Brodribb,  p.  195). 

8  Is.  xix.  24,  25. 

'  *One  of  the  most  catholic  passages  in  the  entire  Old  Testament,  and  one 
of  the  tenderest  presentations  of  Yahweh'  (Gray,  Isaiah,  p.  429  ;  on  xxv.  6-8). 

*  Mai.  1.  11.  '  Malachi  must  have  recognised  a  spirit  of  monotheism  in 
heathen  religions,  and  allowed  that  offerings  rendered  to  a  God  recognised 
as  one  were  rendered  to  Yahweh '  (Driver,  Century  Bible,  ad  loc). 

5  Of.  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  5-7  ;  Is.  Ivi.  6,  7. 


VIII.]  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  NATION  211 

Around  the  scattered  groups  of  Jews  within  the  Roman 
Empire  we  find  larger  circles  of  'those  that  fear  God', 
who  were  attracted  to  the  moral  monotheism  of  Judaism, 
and  welcomed  through  its  implicit  universalism.  And  thus 
we  come  to  the  origins  of  Christianity,  of  which  the  ideas 
are  so  largely  the  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament  interpreted 
through  the  Person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ.^ 

1  On  the  liberation  of  these  ideas  from  the  narrow  nationalism  which 
fettered  them,  see  Montefiore,  Hibbert  Journal,  July  1912  ('The  Signifi- 
cance of  Jesus  for  His  own  Age '). 


212     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  PERMANENT  VALUE   OF   THE   OLD  TESTAMENT 

Familiarity  is  said  to  breed  contempt,  but  much  more 
frequently  it  is  the  parent  of  indifference.  We  are  so 
famihar  with  the  incorporation  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
the  Christian  Bible  that  we  seldom,  if  ever,  reflect  on  the 
remarkable  fact  of  its  presence  at  all — one  of  the  most 
remarkable  facts  in  the  history  of  rehgion.  Here  is  the 
hterature  of  an  ancient  people  of  the  East,  a  nation  of  no 
great  political  importance,  surviving  into  the  crowded 
civilisation  of  the  modern  West,  not  simply  as  documents 
for  the  scholar,  but  as  the  common  book  of  multitudes  of 
common  men.  Here  are  writings  in  an  Oriental  speech, 
moulded  throughout  by  Oriental  modes  of  thought,  and 
belonging  to  perhaps  the  most  conservative  of  nations, 
which  have  passed  from  their  unwiUing  hands  into  the 
thought  and  speech  and  very  life-blood  of  Occidental 
rehgion.  Here  is  an  ancient  book,  of  imperfect  morahty 
and  anthropomorphic  religion,  still  being  offered  to  men  as 
the  living  Word  of  God  to  their  souls.  A  business  man, 
harassed  by  the  industrial  problems  of  modem  demo- 
cracy, drifts  in  to  the  service  of  an  Enghsh  cathedral. 
The  majesty  of  his  surroundings  carries  him  back  to  the 
rehgion  and  art  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  Creeds 
take  him  on  a  longer  journey  to  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  But  the  First  Lesson  demands  the 
longest  pilgrimage  of  all,  for  he  must  hsten,  perhaps,  to 
the  story  of  Jezebel,  of  whose  body  was  found  no  more 
than  the  skull,  and  the  feet,  and  the  palms  of  the  hands. 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        213 

It  is  worth  while  to  try  and  realise  the  strangeness  of  the 
history  which  has  incorporated  such  flotsam  and  jetsam  of 
Semitic  story  into  the  ritual  of  an  English  cathedral  in  the 
twentieth  century  after  Christ.  But  many  at  the  present 
day  are  concerned  less  with  the  wonder  than  with  the 
incongruity  of  it.  What  has  that  Jehu  who  trampled 
on  the  body  of  the  murdered  Jezebel  to  do  with  the  rehgion 
of  Him  who  said  '  Love  your  enemies '  ?  or,  changing 
the  question  from  the  particular  to  the  general,  how  far 
is  the  Christian  use  of  the  Old  Testament  based  on  un- 
reasoning tradition,  and  how  far  on  the  recognition  of  its 
permanent  value  to  the  Church  ? 

The  question  is  not  new,  but  it  has  been  accentuated 
by  certain  tendencies  of  modern  thought.  From  the  very 
beginnings  of  the  Christian  Church,  so  soon  as  it  ceased 
to  be  a  Jewish  sect  and  became  a  universal  fellowship, 
the  inheritance  of  the  Old  Testament  carried  difficulties 
with  it.  That  inheritance  was  indeed  felt  to  be  a 
splendid  one,  and  apostles  in  the  first  and  apologists  in 
the  second  century  made  Old  Testament  prophecy  the 
main  ground  of  their  defence  of  Christ's  claims.  To  say 
'Jesus  is  the  Christ',  as  Paul  did,  was  to  say  'Jesus  is 
that  Messiah  of  whom  the  Jewish  Scriptures  speak'. 
Justin  Martyr  dates  his  Christian  hfe  from  the  time  when 
a  love  of  the  prophets  possessed  him— men  who  spoke  by 
the  divine  Spirit,  and  foretold  events  which  would  and 
actually  did  take  place.^  More  than  this,  it  was  plain  to 
any  reader  of  the  Gospels  in  the  second  century  that  the 
hfe  and  teaching  of  Jesus  were  closely  and  vitally  con- 
nected with  the  Jewish  Scriptures.  Jesus  Himself  appealed 
to  them  frequently  for  His  own  justification,  as  when  He 
said  that  mercy  was  better  than  sacrifice,  or  when  in  the 
synagogue  at  Nazareth  He  claimed  the  prophet's  mission 
as  His  own.  Throughout  the  whole  New  Testament 
there  ring  the  words,  'that  the  Scriptures  might  be  fulfilled '. 
1  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  chap.  vii. 


214     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

The  prophecies  they  contain  are  traced  back  beyond  the 
will  of  man  to  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  Scrip- 
tures are  '  a  lamp  shining  in  a  squaHd  place  until  the  day- 
star  arise  '  ;  they  are  '  profitable  for  teaching,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,  for  instruction  which  is  in  righteousness ' ; 
even  if  their  testimony  be  fragmentary  and  varied,  yet  it 
is  a  true  message  from  the  same  God  who  has  now  spoken 
in  His  Son.^  The  value  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the 
early  Church  was  obvious  and  unquestioned  ;  it  formed, 
indeed,  the  Bible  of  that  Church  before  there  was  a  New 
Testament  at  all. 

At  the  same  time,  the  difficulties  attending  its  use  were 
not  less  plain.  The  Old  Testament,  on  the  face  of  it,  was 
primarily  a  national  book,  whilst  Christianity  soon  became 
conscious  of  itself  as  a  universal  religion.  The  laws  of 
the  Old  Testament  gave  httle  hint  that  they  were  intended 
for  a  season  only ;  indeed,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  must  labour  to  convince  Jewish  Christians 
that  the  priesthood  and  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Covenant 
are  but  a  provisional  symbol,  a  passing  shadow  of  the 
reahties  which  belong  to  the  New  Covenant.  A  Christian 
writer  in  the  second  century  ^  takes  the  more  violent 
method  of  declaring  that  the  Jews  had  completely  mis- 
understood the  Old  Testament,  which  was  meant  to  be 
throughout  an  allegory  of  spiritual  realities.  It  was  the 
allegorising  method  prevalent  amongst  Christians  which 
enabled  them  to  make  the  use  of  the  Old  Testament 
profitable  for  edification,  and,  in  their  own  judgment, 
efficacious  in  argument.  A  yet  more  serious  difficulty, 
however,  arose  from  the  moral  teaching  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Jesus  had  Himself  abrogated  some  of  its  laws  as 
imperfect  and  now  superseded,  such  as  that  which  demanded 
an  eye  for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  Those  who  admit 
this  principle  of  criticism,  and    use  it  intelligently,  are 

1  2  Peter  i.  19-21  ;  2  Tim.  iii.  15,  16  ;  Heb.  i.  1,  2  ;  cf.  Rom,  xv.  4. 

2  In  the  so-called  '  Epistle  of  Barnabas '. 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        2ir, 

faced  by  the  same  question  in  regard  to  every  single 
precept  of  the  Old  Testament,  '  Does  this  come  up  to  the 
Christian  standard  ?  '  The  Jewish  Law,  indeed,  seemed 
to  contradict  not  only  the  Christian  conscience,  but  even 
the  Christian  Gospel  of  grace  ;  ^  if  God  regulated  His 
attitude  and  conduct  towards  men  by  strict  justice,  as 
the  Old  Testament  frequently  inculcated,  what  room 
could  there  be  for  the  love  which  spared  not  His  own  Son  ? 
In  view  of  all  these  difficulties,  there  were  not  wanting 
Christians  in  the  second  century  who  boldly  urged  that 
the  Old  Testament  should  be  rejected.  A  cardinal  con- 
trast was  drawn  by  Gnostic  Christianity  between  the  God 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  God  of  the  New  ;  by  some 
the  Old  Testament  was  analysed  into  elements  of  varying 
value,  on  moral  and  other  grounds.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this 
searching  criticism,  the  general  Christian  consciousness 
maintained  its  hold  on  the  Old  Testament,  though  often 
at  the  cost  of  forced  and  arbitrary  exegesis.  The  heretics 
were  often  right  in  their  explanations  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  yet  the  Christian  rehgion  would  have  been  im- 
poverished beyond  measure  if  their  conclusion  had  been 
accepted,  and  the  Old  Testament  had  been  abandoned 
as  an  encumbrance,  rather  than  a  help,  to  the  faith  of 
Christians. 

Modern  objections  to  the  Old  Testament,  so  far  as  they 
appeal  simply  to  its  unscientific  view  of  nature,  its  histori- 
cal inconsistencies,  its  imperfect  morahty,  its  anthropo- 
morphic representations  of  God,  need  not  be  considered. 
These  are  effective  enough  against  those  who  still  uphold 
a  theory  of  verbal  inspiration,  but  their  effectiveness  dis- 
appears when  they   encounter  the  critical   view   of  the 

1  The  contradiction  is  apparent  rather  than  real,  for  behind  tbe  indivuijml 
requirements  of  the  Law  lay  the  national  covenant  of  K^ace  an«vN  onrp  o  he 
covenant  with  the  new  Israel,  made  in  Christ  s  death.  I  he  J^fl'^^^.c  detail  of 
the  Old  Testament  largely  obscurtd  this  parallelism  and  he  J'^^^'^h  e"5^^;»d 
on  the  'Law'  naturally  led  to  the  Pauline  antithesis  between  Law  and 
♦Gospel'  The  grace  of  the  Gospel  is  more  prominent  partly  because  of  ita 
individiial  presentation. 


216     EELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

history  of  Israel  which  regards  it  as  a  progressive  develop- 
ment. Yet  other  difficulties  arise  as  the  result  of  the 
acceptance  of  this  principle  which  do  deserve  serious 
consideration.  The  critical  view  of  the  Old  Testament 
seems  to  many  to  exclude  the  reahty  of  revelation,  by 
surrendering  the  history  to  purely  naturaUstic,  or,  at  any 
rate,  purely  human  factors.  The  ideas  themselves  are 
thought  to  belong  as  a  whole  to  a  stage  of  thought  now 
left  behind,  and  to  have  lost  their  authority.  The  Old 
Testament,  however  interesting  to  the  scholar,  appears 
to  become  unsuitable  for  moral  and  religious  instruction, 
when  historical,  moral,  and  religious  perfection  is  no 
longer  claimed  for  its  contents.  These  are  the  difficulties 
now  to  be  met  in  the  light  of  the  results  of  preceding 
chapters.  It  will  be  urged  (1)  that  the  history  of  Israel 
fulfils  all  the  conditions  we  ought  to  expect  in  a  divine 
revelation;  (2)  that  the  intrinsic  worth  and  permanent  value 
of  the  created  ideas  does  prove  them  to  be  such  a  revela- 
tion ;  (3)  and  that  the  hterary  record  of  this  history 
has  a  service  to  render  to  morality  and  reUgion  not  less 
valuable  in  the  future  than  in  the  past. 

1.  IsraeVs  History  as  a  Divine  Revelation 

The  essential  fact  in  revelation  is  the  real  activity  of 
God.  The  highest  conception  of  religion  regards  it  as 
the  fellowship  of  God  and  man,  but  there  can  be  no  real 
fellowship  where  the  seK-manifestation  is  all  on  man's 
side.  Man  often  seems  to  speak  into  a  measureless  and 
unbroken  silence,  but  if  the  silence  of  God  were  as  real  as 
it  often  seems  to  be,  religion  would  be  the  most  pathetic 
of  all  self-deceptions,  and  the  highest  experiences  of 
human  personahty  a  cruel  illusion  \\dthin  an  irrational 
universe.  The  fact  is  significant  that  the  three  great 
theistic  religions — Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Muhamme- 
danism — are  all  religions  of  revelation.    From  the  stand- 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        217 

point  of  philosophy,  divine  personality  is  unthinkable 
without  divine  self- communication,  resulting  in  human 
knowledge  of  God.  The  manner  and  the  matter  of  such 
divine  self-communication  can  be  ascertained  only  by 
experience.  Man  must  adjust  himself  to  the  divine 
method,  and  thankfully  profit  by  the  measure  of  know- 
ledge he  may  attain.  This  knowledge  will  be  of  the  truth, 
and  truth  will  be  self-consistent.  But  God  will  certainly 
not  be  dependent  on  external  human  methods  of  communi- 
cating knowledge.  Fellowship  with  God  i  j  plies  that  man 
is  in  the  presence  of  One  greater  than  himself.  One  who 
may  make  Himself  known  in  subtle  and  unforeseen  ways. 
The  line  of  demarcation  between  man's  approach  to  God 
and  God's  approach  to  man  may  be  indecipherable. 
Indeed,  the  soundest  philosophical  position  seem,  to  be 
that  '  revelation  and  discovery  must  be  the  same  process 
viewed  from  different  standpoints  \^ 

The  revelation  of  God  to  Israel  must  be  sought  primarily 
in  the  Hfe  behind  the  literature.  That  literature  came 
into  existence  largely,  if  not  wholly,  in  unconsciousness 
of  any  claim  to  canonical  inspiration.  At  the  most,  it 
was  a  record  of  revelation.  Even  the  prophets,  in  whom 
the  experience  of  divine  revelation  culminates,  were  not 
so  much  scribes  as  spokesmen  of  truth.  The  Jewish 
theory  that  the  Law  was  dictated  to  Moses  does  not  agree 
with  the  evidence  of  the  Law  itself,  which  clearly  shows 
successive  and  slowly  developed  strata.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment, interpreted  in  the  light  it  throws  on  its  own  origin, 
testifies  to  the  reality  of  a  divine  revelation  in  the  life  of 
Israel.  God  was  revealed  not  simply  in  words,  but  in 
a  series  of  acts  extending  over  a  thousand  years.  At  first 
sight,  much  more  unity  is  apparent  in  the  Kur'an  than 
in  the  Old  Testament,  for  the  Kur'an  reflects  the  life  of 
a  single  generation  as  interpreted  through  the  idiosyn- 
crasies  of   a   single   individual.      But   how   much   more 

I  Gwatkin.  The  Knowledge  of  Ood,  i.  p.  156. 


218     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

majestic,  on  any  theory,  is  the  revelation  which  needed 
a  nation's  whole  history  for  its  medium  ! 

But  to  say  that  the  divine  revelation  was  made  through 
the  life  of  Israel  is  necessarily  to  admit  its  progressive 
character.  The  '  discoveries '  made  by  the  nation's 
leaders,  in  the  realms  of  morality  and  religion,  were,  so 
far  as  true,  divine  revelation.  In  every  step  forward 
God  and  man  were  participating,  and  the  pace  was  set 
by  the  needs  and  Umitations  of  the  weaker  partner  in  this 
fellowship.  In  the  whole  of  Israel's  experience,  and  in 
every  idea  which  arose  to  interpret  it,  there  were  these 
two  factors  of  both  human  and  divine  activity.  The 
fellowship  would  not  have  been  genuine  without  man's 
co-operation  as  well  as  God's.  The  men  through  whom 
the  revelation  came  were  themselves  being  educated,  and 
educational  advance  is  necessarily  from  less  to  more.  We 
may  speak  anthropomorphically  of  a  divine  accommoda- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  teacher  to  the  Umitations  of  the 
pupil,  but  this  takes  into  account  no  more  than  the  revela- 
tion to  Israel.  There  remains  the  revelation  through 
Israel  to  the  world,  the  revelation  through  an  experience 
in  which  error  and  truth  necessarily  mingled,  because 
man  was  working  as  well  as  God.  The  reason  for  the 
divine  patience  in  revelation  is,  therefore,  not  wholly 
stated,  when  we  speak  of  the  education  of  Israel  as  neces- 
sarily progressive.  A  deeper  reason,  which  helps  to 
explain  the  apparent  Umitations  of  that  revelation,  is 
that  God's  purposes  are  such  that  they  can  be  achieved 
only  through  the  fellowship  of  man.  Just  as  God  commits 
the  practical  regeneration  of  society  to  the  Christian 
citizenship  of  to-day,  so  He  committed  the  cardinal  reve- 
lation of  His  purpose  to  the  deepening  consciousness  of 
moral  and  religious  truth  in  the  national  Ufe  of  Israel. 
Not  only,  then,  had  the  revelation  to  be  progressive,  for 
the  sake  of  those  who  first  '  discovered '  it,  but  also  for 
the  sake  of  Him  who  gave  it.     In  this,  as  in  so  much  else, 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        219 

He  waits  for  the  co-operation  of  His  fellow-workmen, 
because  the  value  of  the  result  in  His  eyes  depends  on  the 
reality  of  the  fellowship  between  Himself  and  men. 

The  point  of  most  intimate  contact  in  this  fellowship 
of  revelation  was  the  prophetic  consciousness  of  Israel, 
and  the  unique  aspects  of  the  result  are  largely  to  be 
explained  through  this  characteristic  feature  of  the  reli- 
gion. There  are  three  possible  spheres  of  revelation, 
grouped  as  concentric  circles  around  the  central  fact  of 
the  fellowship  of  God  and  man.  The  largest  is  Nature, 
taken  in  abstraction  from  man  ;  then  comes  History,  in 
its  broadest  sense,  as  the  record  of  man's  development, 
individual  or  racial ;  and  finally,  at  the  centre,  Conscious- 
ness, the  direct  personal  experience  of  the  individual.  The 
Greeks  began  at  the  circumference  of  the  largest  circle, 
and  worked  inwards.  The  Hebrews  began  *  at  the  centre 
and  worked  outwards.  Within  each  circle  they  found 
themselves  in  contact  with  God.  The  innermost  convic- 
tion of  the  prophetic  consciousness  is  that  the  same  divine 
Person  who  speaks  to  the  prophet's  heart  is  controUing 
the  events  of  history,  and  upholding  the  phenomena  of 
nature.  From  these  two  outer  circles  are  drawn  the 
necessary  materials,  the  contemporary  data,  for  the 
prophet  to  interpret.  It  is  his  task  to  find  God  there, 
as  he  has  already  found  Him  here.  But  the  fact  that  he 
begins  here,  at  the  centre  of  personal  communion  with 
God,  gives  him  new  and  far-reaching  powers  of  insight. 
The  prophet  himself  makes  the  claim  that  that  insight 
comes  from  God.  Certainly  no  other  explanation  is 
adequate  to  explain  the  results  of  the  insight.  Directly, 
or  indirectly,  it  is  the  prophetic  consciousness  which  gives 
to  the  Old  Testament  its  peculiar  quality  and  its  historic 
influence.     The  claim  of  Israel  to  have  received  a  divine 

1  J.e.  in  emphasis,  not  historical  order,  since  the  three  'circles'  are 
separable  only  for  such  analysis  as  this.  Moses,  for  example,  interprots  by 
his  prophetic  consciousness  a  physical  event,  which  is  part  of  Israel  s  history, 
as  the  act  of  God, 


220     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

revelation  stands  or  falls  with  the  reaHty  of  such  per- 
sonal fellowship  between  God  and  man  as  may  issue  in 
a  true  knowledge  of  God  within  the  human  heart.  In 
this  way  the  philosophy  of  revelation  passes  into  the 
philosophy  of  religious  experience  in  general ;  what  reaUty 
underlies  both  ?  This  vital  question  ought  not  to  be 
complicated  by  any  of  the  alleged  difficulties  of  inspira- 
tion within  and  of  miracle  without.  These  are  questions 
of  method  and  manner,  and  they  are  subsidiary  to  the 
fundamental  issue  of  all  religion — the  reaUty  of  God's 
fellowship  with  man.  It  may  be  said  that  such  a  view 
of  revelation,  which  traces  it  to  the  immanent  presence 
of  the  transcendent  God  within  the  prophetic  conscious- 
ness, is  open  to  two  objections.  It  does  not  distinguish 
that  consciousness  from  the  general  reHgious  experience, 
except  in  degree,  and  therefore  it  leaves  us  without  a  unique 
origin  for  admittedly  unique  results.  Nor  does  it  enable 
us  to  distinguish  the  false  and  the  true,  the  human  error 
and  the  divine  truth,  within  that  consciousness,  by  any 
external  criterion  or  standard,  and  therefore  it  leaves  us 
unable  to  decide  what  is  divine  revelation  in  any  particular 
instance.  Both  statements  are  true,  and  both  conclu- 
sions are  false.  There  is  no  need  to  distinguish  the  pro- 
phetic consciousness  from  religious  experience  in  general, 
except  by  its  greater  intensity.  But  greater  intensity, 
or  difference  of  degree,  does  insensibly  pass  into  a  differ- 
ence of  kind.^  We  do  not  dishonour  prophecy  when  we 
Hft  human  personaUty  into  such  kinship  with  the  divine 
as  to  make  the  prophetic  experience  possible  to  all  men. 
*  Would  God  that  all  Yahweh's  people  were  prophets, 
that  yahweh  would  put  His  spirit  upon  them  ! '      We 

1  This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  the  earth  is  large  enough  to  have 
an  atmosphere,  and  the  moon  is  not.  '  By  simply  piling  atoms  or  stones 
together  into  a  mighty  mass  there  comes  a  critical  point  at  which  an 
atmosphere  becomes  possible  ;  and  directly  an  atmosphere  exists,  all  manner 
of  phenomena  may  spring  into  existence,  which  without  it  were  quite  impos- 
sible '  (Lodge,  Li/e  and  Matter,*  p.  72). 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        221 

must  conceive  God  as  seeking  entrance  into  all  human 
souls  not  less,  but  more,  eagerly  than  the  highest  souls 
seek  entrance  into  His  fellowship.  That  one  man,  or 
one  nation,  should  enjoy  a  closer  and  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  God  than  others,  presents  no  more  difficulty 
than  the  fact  that  one  man  or  nation  may  possess  a  finer 
artistic  consciousness,  or  a  deeper  passion  for  freedom. 
They  will  all  have  their  place  in  the  embracing  purpose 
of  God,  and  'all  service  ranks  the  same  with  God'.  The 
problems  of  divine  election,  which  re-state  the  problems 
of  human  experience,  are  very  real,  but  they  must  not  be 
exaggerated  by  ideas  of  partiaUty  and  favouritism.  W'here 
God  finds  men  able  and  wiUing  to  receive  Him,  there  He 
finds  an  instrument  for  His  purpose.  The  prophetic 
consciousness  is  essentially  human  consciousness  in  fellow- 
ship with  God.  As  for  the  second  objection,  that  no 
adequate  criterion  of  divine  revelation  exists  unless  truth 
be  communicated  to  the  prophets  in  some  'miraculous', 
i.e.  abnormal,  manner,  such  a  view  really  dishonours 
truth.  If  God  really  imparts  truth  to  man  through  inter- 
course with  Himself,  will  not  that  truth  have  an  intrinsic 
quality  which  will  suffice  to  set  it  apart,  sooner  or  later, 
from  all  that  is  untrue  ?  What  higher  test  of  revelation 
can  there  be  than  truth  itself  ?  In  one  sense,  indeed, 
history  becomes  the  guide  to  truth.  The  prophets  them- 
selves appealed  to  it  in  confirmation  of  their  words.  But 
we  also  saw  that  they  appealed  to  a  self-evidencing  power 
in  divine  truth,  which  enforced  conviction  prior  to  the 
confirmation  by  history.  The  historic  influence  of  Israel's 
ideas,  and  particularly  their  incorporation  in  the  Christian 
faith,  does  confirm  all  that  might  be  gathered  from  their 
intrinsic  worth.  But  such  evidence  is  subsidiary.  The 
primary  proof  of  revelation  must  He  in  the  character  of 
the  ideas  which  claim  to  be  revealed.  If  they  are  unique 
in  character  and  importance,  and  are  able  to  secure  a 
unique  response  from  the  human  heart,  then  they  have 


^i±     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

established  their  claim  to  be  a  divine  revelation.  The 
position  in  regard  to  the  Scriptures  as  a  whole  has  been 
tersely  summed  up  by  the  words  :  '  There  is  impressed 
upon  the  writings  which  make  up  the  Bible  a  breadth 
and  variety,  an  intensity  and  purity  of  religious  hfe,  that 
are  without  parallel  in  any  other  hterature  of  the  world. 
That  is  the  fact  which  we  seek  to  express  in  the  doctrine 
of  Inspiration.  We  know  no  other  explanation  for  it 
than  a  special  action  of  the  Spirit  of  God  '  >  '  This  result 
and  the  relative  history  is  not  due  to  the  inborn  reHgious 
genius  of  this  people,  not  to  a  dead  law  of  necessary 
development,  not  to  the  fortunate  concurrence  of  chance 
events,  but,  as  our  firm  conviction  is,  to  the  real  activity 
of  God  in  the  history  and  in  personaUties  '.^ 

2.  The.  Ideas  and  their  Intrinsic  Worth 

'  The  great  object  in  trying  to  understand  history, 
poUtical,  rehgious,  hterary,  or  scientific,  is  to  get  behind 
men  and  to  grasp  ideas  '.^  That  has  been  the  chief  aim 
of  the  preceding  chapters,  which  have  tried  to  penetrate 
through  the  Hterature  to  the  history,  through  the  history 
to  the  fives  of  the  men  who  made  it,  through  their  fives 
to  the  dominant  ideas  which  controlled  their  religion. 
It  is  there,  if  anywhere,  that  the  self- evidencing  results 
of  divine  revelation  must  be  found.  Israel's  work  and 
distinction  in  the  general  history  of  mankind  is  to  have 
become  the  fiving  embodiment  of  these  ideas.  If  men 
want  them,  it  is  to  the  Old  Testament  they  must  go  to 
find  them  most  impressively  expressed  ;  nowhere  else  will 
they  be  found  set  forth  so  thoroughly,  so  dramatically, 
and  with  such  earnest  conviction  of  their  truth.  But  if 
they  are  to  have  the  further  claim  upon  our  reverence  and 
loyal  obedience  which  belongs  to  divinely  revealed  truth, 

1  Sanday,  E.R.E.,  s.v.  *  Bible  ',  ii.  p.  579. 

«  Koeberle,  Siinde  und  Onade,  p.  667.  ^  Lord  Acton,  Letters,  p.  6. 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        223 

the  proof  must  lie  in  their  own  nature.  It  will  be  con- 
venient, in  the  first  place,  to  summarise  the  results  that 
have  been  reached. 

The  leading  idea  of  Israel's  rehgion,  the  characteristic 
feature  that  alone  sets  it  apart  from  all  other  religions 
not  dependent  upon  it,  is  its  idea  of  God.  He  is  the  per- 
sonal Creator,  Upholder,  and  Ruler  of  the  world,  adminis- 
tering its  government  in  pursuit  of  a  holy  and  gracious 
purpose.  Complementary  to  this,  there  is  the  idea  of 
man  as  wholly  dependent  upon  God,  and  not  able  to 
approach  Him  without  moral  hohness,  yet  drawn  to  love 
Him  in  that  gracious  fellowship  through  which  He  gives 
Himself  to  man.  Through  the  moral  demands  of  this 
fellowship  the  problem  of  human  suffering  found  charac- 
teristic interpretation,  as  penalty  for  sin,  discipHne  of 
character,  opportunity  for  disinterested  service  and  sacri- 
ficial offering.  As  a  further  result  of  the  moral  emphasis, 
there  came  the  vision  of  a  future  Kingdom  of  God,  in 
which  His  sovereignty  would  at  last  be  fully  displayed  in 
social  righteousness. 

These  four  ideas  (of  God,  of  man,  of  suffering,  and  of 
the  kingdom)  may  be  said  to  epitomise  the  spiritual 
rehgion  of  the  Old  Testament.  They  have  become  so 
famihar  to  the  religious  thought  of  Western  civilisation 
that  it  is  difficult  to  reaHse  their  greatness— until  we 
remember  that  our  very  famiharity  with  them  is  a  spiritual 
debt  to  Israel  through  Christianity,  and  the  best  proof 
of  their  epoch-making  significance.  In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment they  are  usually  found  with  the  hmitations  of  a 
nationahstic  setting,  but  in  principle  they  are  of  universal 
application.  In  the  Old  Testament,  also,  they  are  more 
or  less  closely  Hnked  to  a  ceremonial  religion  that  has 
ceased  to  have  more  than  archaeological  interest ;  yet 
they  are  essentially  spiritual  principles,  of  which  no  out- 
ward forms  and  ceremonies  can  ever  be  more  than  the 
passing  accompaniment.     Moreover,  Israel's  ethical  mono- 


224     EELIGIOtJS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

theism,  its  religious  view  of  human  nature,  its  moral 
philosophy  of  history,  its  divine  Utopianism,  are  features 
unique  in  the  history  of  reUgion,  in  respect  of  their  vigour, 
intensity,  and  practical  effects.  Thus,  the  universahty, 
the  spirituahty,  and  the  uniqueness  of  these  ideas  prove 
them  to  be  at  least  worthy  to  be  made  the  contents  of 
a  divine  revelation.  But  their  intrinsic  worth  becomes 
most  apparent  when  considered  in  relation  to  the  New 
Testament,  to  the  tendencies  of  modern  philosophy,  and 
to  the  ultimate  test  afforded  by  rehgious  experience. 

The  New  Testament,  in  the  Ught  of  all  it  has  done  for 
the  human  race,  is  the  clearest  historical  demonstration 
of  the  worth  of  the  religious  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  ideas  indicated  in  the  last  two  paragraphs  are  central 
also  in  the  New  Testament,  and  historically  necessary  for 
its  explanation.  The  earhest  form  of  Christianity  may  be 
regarded  as  a  reformation  of  contemporary  Judaism  along 
the  Hues  of  the  prophetic  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament. 
The  idea  of  God  which  is  presupposed  by  the  faith  and 
teaching  of  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  is  substantially  that 
of  the  Old  Testament.  '  The  New  Testament ',  it  has 
been  said,  '  had  nothing  further  to  add  to  the  outUne  of 
the  idea  of  God  [in  the  Old  Testament],  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  glad  to  employ  its  language  '.^  Children  some- 
times ask  the  naive  question  whether  the  Jews  have  the 
same  God  as  the  Christians.  The  answer  of  history  is 
surely  in  the  affirmative,  however  true  it  be  that  the 
Person  and  work  of  Christ  add  a  wealth  of  new  meaning 
to  the  old  idea.  The  Gospel  of  the  New  Testament,  more- 
over, impHes  just  that  rehgious  view  of  human  nature 
which  is  the  distinction  of  Old  Testament  faith.  Men  are 
assumed  to  be  wholly  dependent  on  God.  No  approach 
to  Him  is  possible  if  moral  hohness  be  not  sought.  No 
morality  is  adequate  which  is  not  due  to  the  inner  prompting 
of  love  for  God.  The  central  fact  of  the  New  Testament, 
1  Kautzsch,  Dit  bleibende  Bedeutung  des  Alien  Testaments,  p.  26. 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        225 

the  suffering  of  Christ  on  the  Cross,  gains  its  evangelical 
passion  and  power  by  being  interpreted  along  Hnes  already 
laid  down  by  the  Old  Testament.  Finally,  the  dominant 
New  Testament  idea  in  regard  to  human  society  is  that 
of  the  kingly  rule  of  God,  reahsed  amongst  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  by  moral  obedience  to  Him.  To  say 
this  is  not,  of  course,  to  say  that  the  New  Testament 
makes  no  substantial  addition  to  the  Old.  But  the  advance 
lies  rather  in  the  liberation  of  the  highest  Old  Testament 
ideas  from  their  limitations  and  lower  accompaniments,^ 
in  their  historic  exhibition  and  enrichment  through  the 
Hfe,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  and  in  their  com- 
bination with  the  fresh  and  powerful  dynamic  created 
by  personal  devotion  to  Him. 

Whatever  degree  of  authority,  therefore,  may  attach 
to  the  New  Testament  as  divine  revelation  belongs,  in  its 
own  measure,  to  the  Old.  The  cardinal  ideas  of  both 
are  intrinsically  and  historically  inseparable,  and  herein 
consists  the  organic  unity  of  the  Bible.^  Its  unity  is 
one  of  the  most  convincing  examples  of  divine  purpose 
in  history.  This  teleological  argument,  it  should  be 
noticed,  is  strengthened,  not  weakened,  by  the  critical 
study  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  vision  of  its  whole 
rehgious  teaching  as  a  divinely  guided  development  supplies 
a  broad-based  argument  from  the  Old  Testament  to  the 
New,  immeasurably  richer  and  stronger  than  the  ingenious 
appHcation  of  obscure  sentences.  We  may  compare  this 
change  of  general  standpoint  with  that  which  has  come 
over  the  teleological  argument  for  the  existence  of  God,  the 
argument  from  design  in  the  natural  world  to  a  designer. 

1  Cf.  Montefiore,  Hihhert  Journal,  July  1912.  p.  767:  'the  significance  of 
Jesus  for  his  age  lay  in  this,  that  he  caused  fundamental  beliefs  of  Judaism, 
and  more  especially  fundamental  religious  relationships  of  the  Jews  to  one 
another  and  to  God,  to  flow  over  to,  and  become  the  possession  of,  the  world 

*  a  That  '  prophetic  consciousness '  which  is  central  in  New  Testament  revela- 
tion (cf.  the  work  of  the  Spirit)  is  not  less  central  in  the  creation  of  the  Old 
Testament— a  fact  brought  out  more  clearly  than  ever  by  critical  study. 

P 


226     TwELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

Paley  could  compare  this  or  that  detail  of  Nature's 
working  to  a  watch,  from  which  one  might  infer  a  watch- 
maker. The  acceptance  of  natural  evolution  has  destroyed 
the  argument  in  its  old  form,  because  it  has  taught  us 
the  slow  growth  of  each  detail  from  the  less  to  the  more 
perfect.  But  it  has  given  us  a  new  form  of  the  argument 
in  the  vision  of  Nature  as  a  whole,  ceaselessly  striving 
onwards  and  upwards.  We  do  not  need  to  look  for 
cunning  details  as  examples  of  the  designer's  skill ;  the 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament 
showeth  His  handiwork.  So  is  it  with  the  modern  argu- 
ment from  the  Old  Testament  to  the  New ;  it  rests  not 
on  precarious  interpretations  of  the  text,  '  Behold  a  virgin 
shall  conceive ',  but  on  the  whole  course  of  Israel's  history, 
and  on  the  implicit  prophecy  of  Israel's  religion.  There 
is  a  vital  unity,  a  cumulative  effect,  a  cosmic  method,  in 
the  modern  appeal  to  the  Old  Testament,  for  those  who 
will  take  the  trouble  to  understand  it,  which  the  oldei 
appeal  never  had. 

In  the  second  place,  it  may  fairly  be  claimed  that  the 
tendencies  of  modern  philosophy  support  the  religious 
ideas  of  the  Old  Testament.  Here  we  may  seem  to  invoke 
a  dangerous  and  unnecessary  ally.  It  needs  less  thought 
and  trouble  to  declare  that  rehgion  is  independent  of 
philosophy,  and  to  point  to  the  warring  philosophic  schools 
as  sufficient  evidence  of  the  futility  of  metaphysics.  But 
philosophy  is  after  all  as  much  pledged  to  truth  as  is 
religion.  Ultimately  they  must  be  different  aspects  of 
the  one  truth,  and  every  true  philosophy  should  issue  in 
a  rehgion,  as  every  religion  involves  a  philosophy.  At 
the  present  day  materiahsm  is  bankrupt,  so  far  as  com- 
petent thinkers  are  concerned ;  agnosticism  is  in  httle 
better  case,  save  as  a  healthy  moderating  influence  against 
easy  dogmatism ;  only  a  spirituahstic  interpretation  of  the 
universe  has  any  chance  of  acceptance.  But  within  this 
realm  of  thought  the  inadequacy  of  anv  uncompromising 


IX.]        PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        227 

theory  of  immanence  has  become  apparent  to  many.  The 
facts  of  Ufe  are  too  complex  to  be  traced  so  easily  to  the 
manifestation  of  the  Absolute.  Personahty,  in  very  differ- 
ent schools  of  philosophy,  asserts  its  right  to  fuller  recogni- 
tion. The  future  of  philosophy  is  seen  to  depend  on  its 
attitude  to  the  great  mystery  of  personahty,  whether  in 
man  or  God.  More  attention  is  being  directed  to  the 
moral  and  spiritual  '  values  '  of  personahty  than,  perhaps, 
ever  before.  But  this  increasing  emphasis  on  person- 
ality is  itself  an  approximation  to  the  rehgious  emphasis 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Man  and  God  are  there  brought 
face  to  face,  with  no  impenetrable  barrier  between  them. 
Man  is  conceived  as  a  personahty  distinct  from  God,  yet 
wholly  dependent  upon  Him.  God  has  imparted  a  hfe 
to  man  which,  by  its  spiritual  kinship  with  His,  makes 
religious  fellowship  possible  between  them.  God  controls 
Nature  no  less  directly,  simply,  and  mysteriously  than  the 
human  will  controls  the  movements  of  the  human  body, 
and  miracle  can  be  interpreted  as  the  operation  of  higher 
law  (wherever  there  is  adequate  evidence  for  its  occur- 
rence), the  higher  law  of  higher  personality.  Is  there 
not  much  more  common  ground  between  the  tendencies 
of  modern  thought  and  the  presuppositions  of  the  ideas 
of  the  Old  Testament  than  is  often  recognised  ?  May 
we  not  fairly  claim  that  the  truth,  and  therefore  the 
divine  source,  of  those  ideas  is  confirmed  by  the  testi- 
mony drawn  not  only  from  rehgious  experience,  but  also 
from  many  centuries  of  philosophic  inquiry  ? 

Thirdly,  and  chiefly,  there  is  the  evidence  to  the  worth 
of  these  ideas  offered  by  religious  experience  itself.  That 
intimate  fellowship  with  God,  through  which  these  ideas 
were  generated  in  the  Old  Testament  religion,  and  univer- 
sahsed  in  the  New,  is  still  necessary  for  the  full  proof  of 
their  truth.  Their  primal  source  is  still  their  ultimate 
guarantee.  That  through  which  they  first  came  is  still 
the    highest   court    of    appeal.      Conviction    in    religious 


228     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

truth  is  religiously  conditioned,  as  inevitably  as  convic- 
tion of  artistic  beauty  is  aesthetically  conditioned,  or  as 
conviction  in  the  realm  of  natural  phenomena  is  scientifi- 
cally conditioned.  Without  a  certain  equipment  in  each 
of  these  realms,  a  man  lacks  the  data  for  proof.  To  say 
this  is  not  to  surrender  the  highest  proof  of  revelation 
to  mere  wilful  subjectivity  ;  it  is  rather  to  raise  spiritual 
discernment  to  the  level  of  artistic  and  scientific  insight. 
In  each  case  truth  without  is  recognised  through  the 
spiritual  capacity  for  truth  within,  and  all  else  that  is 
said  is  really  the  expHcation  of  the  recognition,  by  appeal 
to  the  '  doctrines '  of  religion,  the  '  principles  '  of  art,  the 
'  laws  '  of  nature.  This  may  be  more  apparent  if  the  four 
fundamental  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament  be  briefly  con- 
sidered as  an  interpretation  of  universal  rehgious  experience. 
The  idea  of  God  which  the  Old  Testament  presents  is 
rich  in  just  that  wealth  of  personal  attribute  which  reh- 
gious experience  demands.^  All  that  makes  the  noblest 
companionship  between  man  and  man  is  represented 
here,  whilst  the  divine  attributes  of  perfect  wisdom, 
power  and  love  are  those  which  rehgious  experience  must 
seek  in  order  to  find  rest.  Rehgion  cannot  be  content 
with  an5rthing  less  than  this  idea,  when  once  it  has  reached 
it,  and  no  clearer  proof  of  its  worth  can  be  given.^  Simi- 
larly, at  any  rate,  since  Schleiermacher's  time,  the  element 
of  dependence  in  the  deepest  rehgious  experience  has  been 
generally  recognised.  Man  does  find  his  highest  powers 
in  the  conscious  surrender  of  himseK  to  One  higher  than 
himself.  There  is  an  imphcit  logic  in  the  abandonment 
of  the  soul  to  the  mercy  and  love  of  God — '  the  right  of 
the  weaker  over  the  stronger,  which  is  part  of  the  moral 

1  The  statement  is  obviously  not  true  of  certain  types  of  Eastern  religion, 
but  the  issues  between  East  and  West  are  too  large  for  discussion  in  this 
place.  The  assumption  here  made  is  that  the  future  lies  with  the  religion 
that  develops,  not  with  that  which  denies,  personality. 

2  Cf.  J.  S.  Mill's  argument  as  to  the  worth  of  pleasures  in  Utilitarianism^ 
pp.  12  f.  of  11th  ed. 


IX.]       PEEMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        229 

structure  of  the  universe'.*  In  regard  to  the  great 
problem  of  all  reHgions  and  all  philosophies,  the  exist- 
ence of  moral  and  physical  evil,  the  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament  still  leaves  no  inconsiderable  margin  of 
mystery,  but  it  can  inspire  adequate  courage  with  which 
to  face  the  mystery.  If  this  interpretation  be  true,  it  is 
worth  while  to  suffer,  whether  by  way  of  penalty,  dis- 
cipUne,  or  service.  It  is  worth  while,  in  a  sense  in  which 
the  Buddhist  escape  by  the  denial  of  personahty  is  not 
worth  while.  Finally,  the  vision  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
in  social  righteousness  gives  just  that  strength  and 
stimulus  to  humanitarian  effort  and  social  progress  which 
they  need  for  permanent  and  vital  success.  Sooner  or 
later,  the  rehgious  consciousness  will  raise  the  question 
as  to  the  source  and  the  goal  of  those  social  duties  which 
the  moral  consciousness  prompts.  The  Old  Testament 
lays  the  foundation  of  the  only  satisfying  answer. 

Ideas  which  thus  continue  to  meet  the  deepest  needs  of 
men  must  have  an  intrinsic  worth,  estabhshing  their  claim 
to  truth.  They  have  received  one  convincing  testimony 
in  the  arena  of  history,  a  testimony  supported  by  a  multi- 
tude of  lesser  testimonies,  but  supreme  and  unique.  The 
life  of  Jesus  Christ  was  based  on  faith  in  those  ideas, 
and  that  hfe,  issuing  in  apparent  defeat,  is  the  clearest 
example  of  victory  history  knows.  The  story  of  the 
Cross  is  the  most  terrible  indictment  of  the  Providence 
of  God  that  experience  can  offer— till  we  penetrate  to 
the  intrinsic  worth  of  the  Sufferer's  self-surrender,  and 
see  that  the  Resurrection  is  the  crown  of  a  victory  already 
won.  We  may  apply  to  that  story  words  written  in 
a  very  different  connection,  yet  even  more  true  here  : 
'the  heroic  being,  though  in  one  sense  and  outwardly 
he  has  failed,  is  yet  in  another  sense  superior  to  the  world 
in  which  he  appears  ;  is  in  some  way  which  we  do  not 
seek  to  define,  untouched  by  the  doom  that  overtakes 
1  Phillips  Brooks,  Tht  Ivjkunce  o/Jesiis,  p.  131. 


230     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

him ;  and  is  rather  set  free  from  Ufe  than  deprived  of  it 
...  an  idea  which,  if  developed,  would  transform  the 
tragic  view  of  things.  It  implies  that  the  tragic  world, 
if  taken  as  it  is  presented,  with  all  its  error,  guilt,  failure, 
woe  and  waste,  is  no  final  reality,  but  only  a  part  of  reahty 
taken  for  the  whole,  and  when  so  taken,  illusive  ;  and  that, 
if  we  could  see  the  whole,  and  the  tragic  facts  in  their  true 
place  in  it,  we  should  find  them  not  aboUshed,  of  course, 
but  so  transmuted  that  they  had  ceased  to  be  strictly 
tragic  '.* 

It  is  in  this  way  that  Jesus  demonstrates  the  truth 
of  the  Old  Testament,  rather  than  by  the  use  He  makes 
of  its  h'terature.  The  ideas  supply  the  one  interpreta- 
tion of  fife  which  the  religious  consciousness  seeks.  The 
prophets  and  Christ  declared  certain  things  to  be  true  of 
God  and  human  life.  We  cannot  gain  the  ultimate  proof 
that  they  spoke  divine  truth,  except  by  following  their 
footsteps  up  the  peaks  of  spiritual  fellowship  with  God, 
along  tracks  which  their  feet  have  made  possible.  Is  there 
not  a  certain  divine  purpose  apparent  in  the  fact  that 
religion  itself  becomes  the  one  test  of  rehgious  truth  ? 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  co-operation  of  man  is  essential 
to  the  result.  If  a  man  does  not  in  some  measure 
share  in  the  purposes  of  God,  they  will  not  convince  him  of 
their  ultimate  reahty.  But,  '  if  any  man  willeth  to  do  His 
will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching,  whether  it  be  of  God '. 

3.  The  Practical  Value  of  the  Literature 

There  remains  a  final  question  of  great  practical  import- 
ance, which  to-day  perplexes  the  minds  of  many  who  are 
concerned  with  the  teaching  of  Bibhcal  religion.  Suppose 
the  general  contention  of  Old  Testament  criticism  to  be 
admitted,  viz.  that  the  Old  Testament  is  a  progressive 

1  Bradley,  Shakespearean  Tragedy,  pp.  324  f.    (with  special  reference  to 
King  Lear). 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        231 

and  not  an  absolute  revelation  of  the  fundamental  Christian 
truths,  containing  much  that  is  not  history,  much  imperfect 
morality  judged  by  a  Christian  standard,  many  state- 
ments about  God  which  have  dramatic  rather  than 
dogmatic  value — how  far  can  we  continue  to  make  use 
of  it  in  public  worship  and  private  devotion,  and  especially 
in  the  teaching  of  religion  to  the  young  or  the  uneducated  ? 
In  rejecting  such  direct  appeal  to  the  letter  of  Scripture 
as  would  imply  that  this,  and  not  the  life  behind  it,  were 
the  primary  revelation,  have  we  not  deprived  it  of  its 
authoritative  place  and  power  ? 

In  answer  to  such  questions,  it  is  not  enough  to  say 
that  we  must  take  the  Bible  as  we  find  it,  and  that  if  the 
facts  to  which  criticism  appeals  are  indeed  facts,  we  must 
make  the  best  of  the  conclusions.  Such  an  answer  might 
imply  that  we  have  lost  something  by  the  newer  inter- 
pretation of  the  Old  Testament,  whereas  the  argument 
of  this  book  has  been  that  we  have  gained  immeasurably, 
so  far  as  the  vital  and  permanent  elements  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  concerned.  The  difficulty  really  springs 
from  the  inabihty  of  many  to  realise  that  Old  Testament 
criticism  attacks  not  the  authority  of  revelation  but  only 
the  supposed  externalism  of  it.  The  great  ideas  still 
possess  whatever  authority  they  once  possessed ;  moreover, 
they  are  brought  out  more  clearly,  just  as  the  light  and 
shade  of  a  country  are  brought  out  by  the  study  of  its 
contour  fines.  More  inteUigent  study  and  a  deeper 
spiritual  response  are  needed  in  order  that  we  may  hear 
God's  voice  with  full  confidence,  but  are  not  these  demands 
gain  instead  of  loss  ? 

As  for  the  supposition  that  a  selective  attitude  to  the 
letter  of  the  revelation  must  of  necessity  weaken  its 
authority  as  a  whole,  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  selection  as  appfied  to  Scripture  is  not  new  in 
practice.  Whatever  theory  has  been  held  as  to  the 
absolute  value  of  revelation,  men  have,  in  practice,  always 


232     KELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT    [ch. 

been  drawn  to  attach  more  importance  to  some  parts  than 
to  others.  The  only  authority  worth  the  name  exercised 
by  Scripture  has  been  that  which  is  involved  in  the 
intrinsic  worth  of  its  ideas,  the  authority  of  truth  over 
life.  The  Bible  is  written  in  invisible  ink,  until  its  hidden 
characters  are  brought  out  by  the  warmth  of  personal 
experience.  The  real  argument  for  the  authority  of  the 
written  Word  has  always  been  the  same,  since  the  in- 
trinsic worth  of  certain  parts  of  Jewish  and  Christian 
Hterature  was  recognised  and  acknowledged.  Men  have 
accepted  the  Bible  in  the  past,  as  they  will  accept  it 
in  the  future,  because  they  have  been  able  to  say  with 
Coleridge,  '  I  have  found  words  for  my  inmost  thoughts, 
songs  for  my  joy,  utterances  for  my  hidden  griefs,  and 
pleadings  for  my  shame  and  my  feebleness  '.^  The  Bible, 
as  he  says,  proves  its  inspiration  because  it  finds  us.  But 
to  admit  this  is  already  to  recognise  a  selective  principle. 
Life  brings  its  test  to  truth,  as  the  father  says  to  his  son, 
on  visiting  the  school  chapel : 

'  This  is  the  Chapel :  here,  my  son, 

Your  father  thought  the  thoughts  of  youth, 
And  heard  the  words  that  one  by  one 
The  touch  of  Life  has  turned  to  truth  '.^ 

So  far  as  the  educational  use  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  concerned,  the  practical  difficulties  that  spring  from 
its  critical  interpretation  can  easily  be  exaggerated.  In 
the  case  of  young  children — and  this  apphes  to  all  who 
occupy  the  position  of  children  from  the  standpoint  of 
instruction — difficulties  will  hardly  arise  in  such  passages 
as  are  chosen,  and  a  wise  selection  of  passages  would  have 
to  be  made  in  any  case.  Children  '  should  be  familiarised 
early  with  the  text  of  the  Bible.  .  .  .  Whatever  is  to  be 
added  afterwards,  a  knowledge  of  the  text  is  a  primary 

1  Cortfessions  of  an  Enquiring  Spirit,  p.  10  (ed.  1840). 

2  Henry  Newbolt  [Clifton  Ghaptl), 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        233 

essential  '.^  Nothing  ought  to  be  taught  them,  of  course, 
in  this  or  in  any  other  field  of  instruction,  which  could  not 
subsequently  be  accepted  as  relatively  true.  But  it  would 
be  not  less  fatal  to  sound  instruction  to  call  attention  pre- 
maturely to  those  less  obvious  features  on  which  criticism 
fastens,  and  to  suggest  difficulties  that  have  not  yet  been 
felt.  The  simple  narratives  of  the  Old  Testament,  such 
as  the  story  of  Joseph,  and  the  simple  statement  of  great 
ideas,  such  as  the  23rd  Psalm,  can  be  taught  to  a  child 
like  any  other  story  or  poem  within  its  range  of  com- 
prehension. As  questions  concerning  historicity  arise, 
they  must  be  frankly  met.  When  the  '  lower  moraUty ' 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  compared  with  the  New  has 
become  apparent,  the  time  will  be  ripe  for  showing  that 
the  history  of  Israel  was  itself  an  educative  process,  for 
even  a  child  notices  that  parents  and  teachers  judge  the 
same  act  differently  when  done  at  different  ages.  Indeed, 
such  difficulties  belong  rather  to  the  conventional  view 
of  Scripture  as  a  verbally  inspired  text-book  of  morals 
and  doctrine.  It  may  fairly  be  urged  that,  even  for  a 
child,  the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  pro- 
gressive revelation  does  away  with  more  difficulties  than 
it  creates.  The  child  who  has  never  been  taught  an  un- 
true literaHsm  will  never  be  handicapped  by  the  necessity 
of  unlearning  it.  The  teacher  can  afford  to  neglect  those 
difficulties  which  a  child  taught  on  modern  hnes  will  never 
feel.  The  teacher's  aim  is,  firstly,  to  impart  true  and 
sympathetic  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament,  simply  as 
literature,  and,  secondly,  to  emphasise  and  bring  into  pro- 
minence those  great  ideas  which  are  the  true  prophecies 
of  Christ  and  His  Gospel.  If  teaching  on  these  modern 
lines  does  call  for  more  skill,  more  patience  in  the  teacher's 
own  acquisition  of  truth,  less  easy  dogmatism  and  parrot- 
like  repetition  of  borrowed  ideas,  surely  this  should  make 
us  thankful  for  that  new  fight  by  which  God  has  called 

1  Driver,  The  Higher  Criticism,  p.  62. 


234     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT     [ch. 

us  to  devote  ourselves  with  more  whole-hearted  applica- 
tion, and  with  greater  expenditure  of  time  and  pains,  to 
the  study  of  His  holy  Word. 

A  closer  study  of  the  Old  Testament,  critical  in  method, 
yet  devotional  in  spirit  and  aim,  might  well  prepare  men 
for  the  better  understanding  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  Those  who  have  escaped 
from  the  naturaHsm  and  agnosticism  of  a  past  generation, 
without  yet  finding  firm  anchorage  in  reHgious  truth, 
might  well  ponder  the  words  with  which  Herbert  Spencer 
brings  his  autobiography  practically  to  its  close,  words 
which  have  their  own  pathos  in  view  of  the  prison-wall 
he  built  around  himself  and  so  many  others  :  '  Largely, 
however,  if  not  chiefly,  this  change  of  feeUng  towards 
reHgious  creeds  and  their  sustaining  institutions,  has 
resulted  from  a  deepening  conviction  that  the  sphere 
occupied  by  them  can  never  become  an  unfilled  sphere, 
but  that  there  must  continue  to  arise  afresh  the  great 
questions  concerning  ourselves  and  surrounding  things  ; 
and  that,  if  not  positive  answers,  then  modes  of  con- 
sciousness standing  in  place  of  positive  answers,  must  ever 
remain  '.^  Here,  surely,  the  permanent  value  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  apparent.  Its  great  ideas  can  train  men  in 
such  '  modes  of  consciousness '  as  will  be  transformed 
into  '  positive  answers  '  by  spiritual  contact  with  Christ. 

The  Old  Testament  is  more  than  ever  the  Word  of  God 
to  man,  when  its  reHgious  ideas  are  seen  in  their  true 
perspective,  and  its  authority  is  recognised  as  not  of  the 
letter,  but  of  the  spirit.  The  Hterature  which  is  the 
casket  of  these  ideas  is  rightly  to  be  called  a  divine  revela- 
tion. It  wiU  still  speak  to  the  hearts  of  men,  as  with  the 
Uving  utterance  of  the  God  and  Father  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  truths  it  contains  await  our  needs,  not  as  pale  and 
remote  abstractions,  but  embodied  in  the  concrete  history 
of  a  national  Hfe,  a  history  recorded  in  a  Hterature  second 

1  Autobiography,  ii.  p.  469. 


IX.]       PERMANENT  VALUE  OF  OLD  TESTAMENT        235 

only  to  that  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  height  of  its 
rehgious  experience.  The  ideas  come  to  us  wedded  to 
striking  phrase  and  vivid  figure,  which  form  the  noblest 
part  of  the  vocabulary  of  religion,  in  all  the  generations. 
They  are  accessible  to  all  men,  and  comprehensive  of  all 
needs  through  the  variety  of  their  expression,  which  ranges 
from  the  simple  story  that  a  child  can  follow,  up  to  the 
vision  of  unseen  things  large  enough  to  be  the  goal  of  a 
life  of  saintly  experience.  They  are  the  only  vestibule 
by  which  we  can  enter  with  understanding  into  the  palace 
of  New  Testament  truth,  prepared  to  reverence  its  greater 
glory. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY! 

I.  LITERARY  CRITICISM 

BuDDE.     Geschichte  der  althehrdischen  Litteratur.     2nd  ed.,  1909. 
Carpenter  and  Harford-Battersbt.     The  Hexateuch,  1900. 
Chapman.     An  Introduction  to  the  Pentateuch  (Cambridge  Bible), 

1911. 
Cornill.     Introduction  to  the  Canonical  Books  of  the  Old  Testament 

(E.T.),  1907. 
Driver.     An  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  the  Old  Testament. 

8th  ed.,  1909. 
Driver  and  Kirkpatrick.     The  Higher  Criticism,  1912. 
Gray.     A  Critical  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  1913. 
Kautzsch.     Literature  of  the  Old  Testament  (E.T.),  1898. 
Kirkpatrick.     The  Divine  Library  of  the  Old  Testament,  1891. 
Kent.     The  Student^ s  Old  Testament  : 

Beginnings  of  Hebrew  History,  1904. 
Historical  and  Biographical  Narratives,  1905. 
Israel's  Laws  and  Legal  Precedents,  1907. 
The  Sermons,  Epistles,  and  Apocalypses  of  Israel's  Prophets, 
1910. 

1  Selected  for  purposes  of  further  study,  and  chiefly  on  the  general  lines  of 
the  present  volume.      Copious  bibliographies  will  be  found  in  Kent,   The 
Student's  Old  Testament. 
The  only  abbreviations  employed  which  call  for  mentioa  are  : 
D.B.    .    'H.SiStmgs's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 
E    .     .   The  narrative  by  Ephraimite  writers  from  750  B.C.,  using 

the  name  Elohim,  (God). 
E.  Bi.  .   Encyclopcedia  Biblica. 
E.R.E.   Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 
E.T.    .    English  Translation. 
J    .     .    The  narrative  by  (Judaean  ?)  writers  from  850  B.C.,  using 

the  name  Yahweh. 
P    .    .    The  'priestly'  narrative  and  legislation  (exilic  and  post- 
exilic). 
236 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  237 

M'Fadyen.     An  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  1905. 

Smith,  G.  A.     Modern  Criticism  and   the  Preaching   of  the   Old 

Testament.     2nd  ed.,  1901. 
Smith,  W.  Robertson.     The  Old  Testament  in  the  Jewish  Church. 

2nd  ed.,  1895. 
Sprott.    Modern  Study  of  the  Old  Testament  and  Inspiration,  1909. 
Wellhausen.      Die  Composition  des  Hexateuchs  und  der  histori- 

schen  Bucher  des  Alten  Testaments.    3rd  ed.,  1899. 

II.  HISTORY 

Benzinger.      Geschichte  Israels  bis  auf  die  griechische  Zeit.     2nd 

ed.,  1908. 
Guthe.   Art.  'Israel',  in  Encyclopoedia  Biblica,  vol.  ii.  cols.  2217- 

2289,  1901. 
Kent.     A  History  of  the  Hebrew  People.     12th  ed.,  1905. 
A  History  of  the  Jewish  People.     7th  ed.,  1905. 
Heroes  and  Crises  of  Early  Hebrew  History,  1909. 
Kings  and  Prophets  of  Israel  and  Judah,  1909. 
Founders  and  Rulers  of  United  Israel,  1900. 
Makers  and  Teachers  of  Judaism,  1911. 
PiEPENBRiNG.     Histoire  du  Peuple  D'Israel,  1898. 
Smith,  H.  P.     Old  Testament  History,  1903. 
Stade.     Geschichte  des  Volkes  Israel,  1886-1888. 
Wade.     Old  Testament  History.     5th  ed.,  1907. 
Wellhausen.     Sketch  of  the  History  of  Israel  and  Judah.    3rd  ed., 
1891. 

Prolegomena  zur  Geschichte  Israels.     5th  ed.,  1907. 

(E.T.  as  '  History  of  Israel',  1885.) 
Israelitische  und  Jiidische  Geschichte.     6th  ed.,  1907. 
Die  israelitisch-jildische  Religion,  in  '  Die  Kultur  der  Gegen» 
wart',  pp.  1-41.     2nd  ed.,  1909. 

III.  RELIGION 

Addis.     Hebrew  Religion  to  the  Establishment  of  Judaism  under 

Ezra,  1906. 
Bennett.     The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament,  1896. 
Bertholet.    Biblische  Theologie  des  Alten  Testaments  (vol.  il  ;  Bee 

Stade),  1911. 


238     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

BuDDE.     Bdigion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile,  1899. 

Burnet.     Outlines  of  Old  Testament  Theology.     3rd  ed.,  1910. 

Cheyne.     Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile,  1898. 

Davidson.     The  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament  (posthumous),  1904. 

GiESEBRECHT.     Die  Grundzuge  der  israelitischen  Religionsgeschichte. 

2nd  ed.,  1908. 
Kautzsch.     Art.  'Religion  of  Israel',  in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of 

the  Bible  (vol.  v.  pp.  612-734),  1904. 
LoiSY.     The  Religion  of  Israel  (E.T.),  1910. 
Marti.     Geschichte  der  Israelitischen  Religion.     4tli  ed.,  1903. 
MoNTEFioRE.     Hibhert  Lectures.     2nd  ed.,  1893. 
PEA.KE.     The  Religion  of  Israel,  1908. 

PiEPENBRiNG.  Theologic  de  VAncien  Testament,  1886  (E.T.,  1893). 
ScHULTZ.  Old  Testament  Theology  (E.T.  of  German  4th  ed.),  1898. 
Smend.      Lehrbuch  der  alttestamentlichen  Religionsgeschichte.     2nd 

ed.,  1899. 
Stade.     Biblische  Theologie  des  Alien  Testaments  (vol.  i.),  1905. 
Valeton.     '  Die  Israeliten',  in  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye's  Lehrbuch 

der  Religionsgeschichte  (vol.  i.  pp.  384-467).     3rd  ed.,  1905. 
Welch.     The  Religion  of  Israel  under  the  Kingdom,  1912. 


IV.  RELATION  TO  OTHER  RELIGIONS 

Baentsch.       Altorientalischer    und    israelitischer    Monotheismus, 

1906. 
Barton.     A  Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins,  1902. 
Cook.     The  Laws  of  Moses  and  the  Code  of  Hammurabi,  1903. 
Cook.     The  Religion  of  Ancient  Palestine  in  the  Second  Millennium 

B.C.,  1908. 
Curtiss.     Primitive  Semitic  Religion  To-Day,  1902, 
Jastrow.     The  Religio7i  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  1898. 

Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia 

and  Assyria,  1911. 
Die  Religion  Babyloniens  und  Assyriens,  1902-1913. 
Jeremias.     Das  Alte  Testament  im  Lichte  des  Alien  Orients.     2nd 

ed.,  1906  (E.T.,  1911). 
Lagrange.     Mudes  sur  les  Religions  Semitiques.     2nd  ed.,  1905. 
Marti.     Die  Religion  des  Alien  Testaments  unter  den  Religionen  des 

vorderen  Orients  (E.T.  by  Bienemann,  1907),  1906. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  239 

Rogers.     The  Beligion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  1908. 
Rogers.     Cuneiform  Parallels  to  the  Old  Testament,^  1912. 
Sellin.      Die   alttestamentliche  Religion  im  Rahmen  der   andem 

altorientalischen,  1908. 
ScHRADER,  ZiMMERN,  WiNCKLER.    Die  KeiUnschriften  und  das  Alie 

Testament.     3rd  ed.,  1903. 
Smith,  W.  Robertson.    The  Religion  of  the  Semites.    2nd  ed.,  1894. 
Wellhausen.     Reste  arahischen  Meidentums.     2nd  ed.,  1897. 
WiNCKLER.     Religionsgeschichtcr  und  geschichtlicher  Orient,  1906. 
Vincent.     Canaan  d^apres  V exploration  recente,  1907. 

V.  SPECIAL  TOPICS 

Davidson.  Art.  '  God',  in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (toL  il 
pp.  196-205),  1900. 

BuRNEY.     Israel's  Hope  of  Immortality,  1909. 

Charles.  A  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life,  in 
Israel,  in  Judaism,  and  in  Christianity  (see  also  art.  '  Eschat- 
ology',  in  Encyclopoidia  Biblica,  vol.  ii.  cols.  1335-1392),  1899. 
2nded.,  1913  (?). 

Koeberle.     Natur  und  Geist,  1901. 

LoDS.     La  Croyance  a  la  Vie  Future  et  le  Culte  des  Morts,  1906. 

LoHR.    Sozialismus  und  Individualismus  im  Alten  Testament,  1906. 

Robinson,  H.  W.  '  The  Old  Testament  Doctrine  of  Man ',  in  The 
Christian  Doctrine  of  Man  (pp.  4-67),  1911. 

Sen  vv ALLY.     Das  Leben  nach  dem  Tode,  1892. 

ToRGE.  Seelenglaube  und  Unsterblichkeitshognung  im  Alten  Testa- 
ment, 1909. 

Batten.     The  Hebrew  Prophet,  1905. 

Bennett.     The  Religion  of  the  Post-Exilic  Prophets,  1907. 

Davidson.    Art.  '  Prophecy  and  Prophets  ',  in  Hastings's  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible  (vol  iv.  pp.  106-127),  1902. 
Old  Testament  Prophecy,  1903. 

Giesebrecht.  Die  Berufsbegabung  der  alttestamentlichen  Prophettn, 
1897. 

Joyce.     The  Inspiration  of  Prophecy,  1910. 

1  This  contains  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  texts  (transliterated)  and 

translations  of  the  more  important  documents  referred  to,  but  nut  quoted,  in 

Die  KeiUnschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament  {KAT3;  this  is  very  different 

from  the  earlier  form  of  the  work,  of  which  there  is  an  English  translation,. 


240     RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

Kaplak.     Psychology  of  Prophecy,  1908. 

Smith,  W.  Robertson.     The  Prophets  of  Israel.    2nd  ed.,  1895. 

VoLZ.     Der  Geist  Gottes,  1910. 

Wood.     The  Spirit  of  God  in  Biblical  Literature,  1904. 

Herrmann.     Die  Idee  der  Siihne  im  Alien  Testament,  1905. 
Moore.    Art. '  Sacrifice ',  in  Encyclopcedia  Bihlica  (vol.  iv.  cols.  4183- 
4233),  1903. 

BoEHMER.     Der  alttestamentliche  Unterbau  des  Reiches  Gottes,  1902. 
Chetne.     The  Origin  and  Religious  Contents  of  the  Psalter,  1891. 
Driver.     Modern  Research  as  illustrating  the  Bible,  1909. 
GiESEBRECHT.     Die  Geschichtlichkeit  des  Sinaibundes,  1900. 
Gray.     The  Divine  Discipline  of  Israel,  1900. 
Gressmann.     Der  Ursprung  der  israelitisch-jiidischen  Eschatologie, 

1905. 
KoBBERLE.     Sunde  und  Gnade,  1905. 

Kraetzschmar.     Die  Bundesvorstellung  im  Alten  Testament,  1896. 
Meinhold.     Die  Weisheit  Israels,  1908. 
Oesterlet.     The  Evolution  of  the  Messianic  Idea,  1908. 
Peake.     The  Problem  of  Suffering  in  the  Old  Testament,  1904, 
VoLz.     Mose,  1907. 
Westphal,  G.    Jahwes  Wohnstattenf  1908. 


INDEX 


Aaron,  63,  113,  141. 

Abimelech,  82, 

Abraham,  30  n.  2,  31,  67  n.  1,  147, 

187. 
Achan,  88,  131. 
Adam,  179,  181. 
Advent,  Second,  191. 
Agriculture  and  Religion,  57,  138. 
Ahab,  11,  120,  187. 
Ahaz,  12. 

Alexander  the  Great,  16. 
Allegorical  interpretation,  3,  214. 
Amos,  11,  34  f.,  36,  67,  115,  165  f., 

190. 
Ancestor-worship,  92. 
Angel  of  Yahweh,  106. 
Angelology,  127,  181,  183. 
Animism,  Semitic,  46  f.,  103  f. 
Anointing,  199. 
Anselra,  165. 

Anthropomorphism,  61  f. ,  64  f. ,  148. 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  16,  208  f. 
Apocrypha,  3  n.  1. 
Ark,  56,  63,  131  f..  136. 
Asherah,  135. 
Assyria,  11  f.,  34,60,  123. 
Atonement,  167,  177. 

Day  of,  140  f.,  146,  149. 

Augustine,  115,  165,  198. 
Azazel,  146. 

Baalim  (-ism),  9,  17  f.,  46,  57  f.,  78. 

Babylon,  12  f.,  202. 

Babylonian  influences,  18  f.,  46,  52, 

139,  179. 
Barcochba  Revolt,  209. 
Bethel,  34,  62,  134,  190,  192. 


Blood,  143  f.,  146  f. 

Revenge,  87  f. 

Brahman,  51. 
Buddhism,  29,  229. 
Bunyan,  115. 
Burnt-offering,  144. 

Cain  and  Abel,  45  n.  2. 

Calvin,  74. 

Canaanite  influences,  17  f.,  46,  57  f. , 

63,  134,  138. 
Canaanites,  9  f.,  17  f.,  33  f.,  44,  57  f., 

138. 
Canon,  3  n.  1,  16,  123  f. 
Causation,  idea  of,  73  and  n.  3. 
Cherubim,  105. 
Circumcision,  19,  47,  207. 
Clean  and  uuolean,  1,  33  n.  1. 
Covenant,  8,  13,  31,  35,  89,  125,  164 

f.,  166  f.,  186  f. 

Book  of  the,  5n.  1,  66  f.,  80, 135. 

Creation  stories,  72,  84  f. 

Criticism  of  Old  Testament,  1  f.,  4,  6, 

216,  231  f. 

results  of,  5  n.  1. 

Cyrus,  14,  199,  202. 

Damascus,  11. 

Daniel,  Book  of,  16,  97  f.,  127.  181, 

195,  208  f. 
David,  9  f.,  59,  87  f.,  186. 
Day  of  Yahweh,  121,  190  f. 
Death,  47,91  f.,  153  f.,  179. 
Deborah,  Song  of,  9,  33  f.,  36,  55. 
Decalogue,  56,  63  «.  3,  66,  88  f.,  131. 

139  f.,  155, 187  n.  3. 
Deism,  49. 
Demonology,  47  n.  2,  104,  ISl. 


242      RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


Dependence  on  God,  83  f.,  228. 

Deutero-Isaiah,  14, 121, 166, 192,  202, 
205  f. 

Deuteronomic  Reformation,  12, 135  f. 

Deuteronomy,  Book  of,  13,  15,  58, 
123  f,  151,  162,  188. 

Dispersion,  20,  24,  128,  206,  210. 

Dogmatic  interpretation  of  Old  Testa- 
ment, 3. 

Dreams,  109,  118  n.  1. 

Dualism,  75,  181  f. 

EccLESiASTEs,  5  n.  2,  98,  171,  174. 
Elephantine  Papyri,  60  n.  5,  124  n.  1, 

137  n.  1,  149  w.  4,  208  n.  3. 
Elijah,  11,  39,  57,  63,  66,  80,  94  n. 

2,  105,  178,  189,  193. 
Elisha,  11,  63,  111. 
Elohim,  52,  61  71.  1. 
Enoch,  94  n.  2. 
Ephod,  47,  63,  109  n.  1. 
Eschatology,  90,  98,  191,  194. 
Esther,  Book  of,  209  n.  2,  210. 
Evil,  problem  of,  160,  178  f.,  229  f. 
Evolution,  100,  226. 
Exile,  13  1,19,  58  f.,  186. 
Exodus,  the,  7  f.,  189. 
Experience  and  religion,  52  andw.  1, 

70,  227  f. 
Ezekiel,  14,  82,  86,  89  f.,  94,  111,  115 

f.,  125,  142,  157,  163,  206. 
Ezra,  15,  35,  37,  123,  207  f. 

Faith,  37,  40  and  n.  3,  154,  186. 

Fasting,  140  n.  3. 

Fellowship  of  God  and  man,  25  f.,  28, 
37,  50,  65  f.,  73,  114,  118  f.,  127  f., 
177  n.  3,  217,  220,  227,  230. 

Festivals,  17  f.,  137  f. 

Foreign  influences,  17,  45  f. 

Forgiveness,  160,  164  f. 

Fox,  George,  116. 

Freedom,  human,  38,  50,  72,  75,  98, 
178,  218. 

Funeral  customs,  47,  92,  133  n,  1. 

Future  Life,  91  f. 


Gezer,  63. 

Gibeonites,  88. 

Gnostics,  75,  215. 

God.     See  especially  Chap.  III. 

emphasis  on,  31,  37,  49,  74,  78. 

idea  of,  51  f.,  228. 

in  history,  51. 

Greek  influences,  20,  96  f.,  208. 

life,  20. 

morality,  42,  154. 

Guilt,  169. 
Guilt-offering,  145,  177. 

Habakkuk,  172,  192  w.  1. 

Haggai,  15,  162. 

Hammurabi,  Code  of,  19. 

Hananiah,  120  f. 

Hands,  laying  on  of,  146. 

Heart,  81. 

Henotheism,  60. 

Heredity,  89. 

Hezekiah,  12. 

History,  interpretation  of,  119. 

outline  of,  7  f. 

Holiness  of  God,  69  f . ,  130  f. 

moral,  154  f.,  158. 

'  Holiness,  Law  of,  125,  207. 

Holy  of  Holies,  64,  140. 

Holy  Places,  133  f. 

Horeb,  134. 

Hosea,  11,  40,  58,  62  f.,  68  f.,  166. 

Humilit}',  155. 

Images,  62  f. 
Immanence  of  God,  220. 
Immanuel,  200  n.  5. 
Immorality,  sexual,  46,  136. 
Immortality,  96,  173. 
Individuality,  89,  164,  168. 
Inspiration,  119,  131,  222,  232. 
Intrinsic  truth,  196,  221  f.,  229  f. 
Isaiah,  12,  69  f.,  78,  115  f..  122,  156. 
Israel  and  Judah  (union  of),  10. 

Jacob,  134. 
Jael,  33. 


INDEX 


243 


Jealousy  of  Yaliweh,  56  f. 

Jehoiada,  57. 

Jehu,  11,  45,  57,  63,  213. 

Jeremiah,  13,  45,  89,  115  f.,  120  f., 

122.  156  f.,  168,  171,  139.203. 
Jeroboam,  63. 
Jerusalem,   12,   16,  24,  135  f.,  140, 

193.  197  f. 
Job,   40,   94,   122,   174  f.,  180,  182, 

205. 
Joel,  170,  193. 
Jonadab,  45. 

Jonah,  Book  of,  205  n.  2,  210. 
Joseph,  111. 
Joshua,  111, 
Josiah,  12,  45. 
Jubilee,  140  n.  2. 
Judaism,  14  f.,  22,  127  f.,  169,  206, 

216. 
Judges,  the,  5  n.  1,  9.  11. 
Justin  Martyr,  213. 

Kemosh,  22,  59. 

Kenites,  53. 

King  (title  of  Yahweh),  194  f. 

Kingdom  of  God,  193  f.,  229. 

Kingship  (Davidic),  10,  195,  200. 

Law,  125,  127  f.,  129. 

authority  of,  35,  37,  41,  123  f. 

ceremonial,  42. 

Prophets  and  Writings,  4,  124. 

Legislation,  nomadic,  38. 
Levites,  6  n.  1,  142. 
Loving-kindness  of  God,  68. 

MACCABiGAN  REVOLT,  16, 128,  208  f. 
Magic,  symbolic,  146  n.  1. 
'Malachi',  172. 
Man.     See  especially  Chap.  IV. 

idea  of,  77  f . 

place  of,  72,  85  f.,  98  f. 

Manasseh,  12,  57,  135. 
Manifestations  of  Yahweh,  104  f. 
Mazzebah,  135. 
Messiah,  198  f. 


Messianic  Hope,  30  f.,  97,  191, 196. 

Micah,  39,  147  n.  2,  200  n.  5. 

Micaiah,  120f. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  182. 

Miracle,  107  f.,  112. 

Moabites,  22. 

Monotheism,  59  f.,  211 

Assyrio-Babylouian,  17,  19  n.  1, 

52. 
Morality,  'customary',  162  f. 
emphasis  on,  32,  36  f.,  ".8  f.,  49, 

65  f.,  77,133. 

as  (divine)  Law,  41,  154  f. 

motive  of,  44. 

pre-prophetic,  39. 

beauty  and  truth,  44. 

and  religion,  156. 

Moses,  6,  8,  20,  38,  53,  77  n.  1,  106. 

Ill,  113,  126,  132,  1S6,  219  a.  1. 
Muhammedanism.  29,  216. 
Mysticism,  50,  96,  100. 

Naaman,  59. 

Nahum,  192. 

'  Name '  of  Yahweh,  106. 

Names  of  God,  52  f. 

Nathan,  39,  66  f.,  163,  189. 

Nationalism,  206  f. 

Natural    and    supernatural,   25,   73, 

102  f.,  107  f. 
Nature,  60,  71  f.,  98,  198. 
Nazirites.  45  w.  1,  133  «.  1. 
Ntbiivi,  18. 
Nebuchadrezzar,  12  f. 
Necromancy,  92. 
Nehemiah,  15,  37,  207. 
Newman,  74  f. 

Obadiah,  193  f. 

Old  Testament,  difficulties  of,  8  f.. 

214. 

value  of,  212  f.,  230  f. 

in  relation  to  New  Tistament 

213  f.,  224. 
Omri,  11,  45. 
Oracle,  103  n.  3,  108,  112. 


244      EELTGIOUS  IDEAS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 


Palestine,  conquest  of,  7  f. 
Paley,  226. 
Pantheism,  75,  99  f. 
Passover,  138. 
Patriarchal  stories,  30. 
Peace-oflfering,  144. 
Penitence,  165  f. 
Pentateuch,  15,  42,  124. 

Samaritan,  124  n.  1. 

Pentecost,  137  f. ,  139. 
Persian  influences,  15,  19,  181. 
Personality,  64  f.,  119,  227,  228  n.  1. 
corporate,  87  f.,   163  f.,  185, 

203  f. 

dual,  116  n.  3. 

influence  of,  20, 

and  morality,  38. 

unity  of,  48,  83,  99,  118. 

of  Yahweh,  60  f. 

Philistines,  9  n.  I,  132. 

Philo,  20. 

Pompey,  16,  64. 

Post-exilic  community,  15  f.,  19,  35, 

127,  150  f.,  167,  206  f.,  210. 
Prayer,  152. 

Priest,  124,  141  f.,  167,  184. 
Priestly  Code,  15,  40,  42,  123,  128, 

133,  141  f.,  183. 
Prophecy,  early.  111,  116  f. 

false,  120. 

test  of,  119  f. 

written,  122, 

Prophet,  124,  165,  167. 

Prophetic  consciousness,  23,  113  f., 

219  f.,  225. 
Proselyte,  210. 
Prosperity,  169. 
Providence,  70  f.,  178. 
Psalms,  Book  of,  149  f. 
Psychology,  Hebrew,  48.  79  f.,  117. 
Psychoses,  abnormal,  115  f. 
Puritanism,  44  f. 

Rechabites,  45, 
Redemption,  31  f. 
Rehoboam,  10. 


Religion,  disinterested,  175  f. 

idea  of,  28  f. 

mystery  of,  159  f.,  175. 

stages  of  Old  Testament,  28,  33, 

35  f. 

and  culture,  44  f, ,  179. 

and  history,  29,  217  f. 

and  philosophy,  226  f. 

'  Remnant,  righteous ',  23,  197. 
Resurrection,  97  f.,  173. 
Retribution,  43,  154,  170. 
Return  from  exile,  14  f. 
Revelation,  126,  152  f.,  216  f.,  284. 

philosophy  of,  24  f.,  216  f. 

progressive,  218,  233. 

Righteousness,  168  f. 

of  God,  68. 

Ritual,  49,  148,  190. 

Roman  religion,  31  and  n.  2,  143. 

Rome,  16,  20  f. 

Ruth,  Book  of,  210. 

Sabbath,  19,  139,  207. 
Sacramental  religion,  129,  157  f. 
Sacrifice,  143  f.,  165  f.,  205  n.  1. 

human,  18  n.  1,  136  n.  1,  147. 

nomadic,  143. 

value  of,  150  f. 

Salvation,  73.    {See  also  *  Fellowship 

of  God  and  man'.) 
Samaria,  fall  of,  12. 
Samaritans,  208. 
Samson,  82,  110. 
Samuel,  10,  92,  105,  135,  195. 
Sanctuaries,  17,  134  f. 
Satan,  180  f. 
Saul,  10,  82,  92,  110  f.,  116  f.,  143, 

163. 
Scepticism  in  Old  Testament,  64  and 

n.  2. 
Schleiermacher,  228. 
Science  and  Old  Testament,  71  n.  1. 
Scripture,  authority  of,  3,  123  f.,  225, 

232. 

unity  of,  225. 

Seasons,  holy,  137  f. 


INDEX 


245 


Sennacherib,  12. 
Septuagint,  3  n.  1. 
Seraphim,  105. 
Serpent,  brazen,  63. 

in  Eden,  180. 

Servant  of  Yahweh,  22, 91, 176  f. ,  185, 

202  f. 
Shades,  83,  92. 
Shechinah,  106. 
Sheol,  47,  92  f.,  173. 
Sin,  153,  160  f.,  179. 
Sinai,  2,  8,  11,  34,  105  f.,  134,  139, 

187,  189. 
Sin-offering,  144  f. 

not  penal,  146. 

Social  morality,  34. 

Society  and  the  individual,  87  f. 

Socrates,  78. 

Solomon,  10,  186. 

'  Sons  of  God  ',  180  f. 

Soul  (nephesh),  80. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  234. 

Spinoza,  75. 

Spirit  {ruach),  81  f.,  110. 

of  Yahweh  (or  God),  48,  79,  84, 

86  f.,  110  f.,  112,  116  f.,  201,  222. 
Sub-consciousness.  82. 
Substitution,  147,  166. 
Suffering,  154,  204. 

disciplinary,  170. 

retributive,  161  f. 

vicarious,  177  n.  1,  204. 

of  the  innocent,  160,  169  f. 

theories  of,  172. 

Summary  of  argument,  26  f.,  223. 
Supernatural  beings,  54. 
Survivals,  animistic,  47. 
Synagogue,  24,  149. 


Tabernacles    (Ingathering),    Feast 

of,  137  f. 
Taboo,  47,  131,  162  f. 
Teleology,  23f.,225f. 
Tell-el-Amarna  Letters,  7, 18  and  n.  2. 
Temple,  10,  14  f.,  28,  58  f.,  125  f., 

136  f.^  148  f.,  151. 
Teraphim,  47,  56  ».  3,  63. 
Theism,  182. 
Theophanies,  104  f.,  112. 
Transcendence  of  God,  62. 
Trespass-offering,  145. 

Unleavened  Bread,  Feast  of,  137  f. 
Urim  and  Thummim,  92,  108  f. 
Utilitarianism  of  Jewish   morality, 

43. 
Uzzah,  132. 

Vulgate,  3  n.  1. 

War  and  Religion,  55,  131. 

Weeks,  Feast  of,  137  f. 

Wind,  82,  110. 

Wi«dom  literature,  43. 

Worship,  34,  57  f.,  63,  68,  140,  149, 

151,  166,  184,  210,  235  ;  Chap.  vi. 

passim. 

Yahwbh.    See  especially  Chap.  III. 

pre-Mosaic  use  of  name,  53. 

as  storm-god,  60  f.,  105,  134  n. 

4. 
as  war-god,  33,  36,  55  f. 

Zechariah,  15,  115,  127. 
Zophaniah,  192,  196. 
Zerubbabel,  200. 


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